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Thought provoking. I think the nexus of a solution is a combination of regular debt jubilee, the ability to use Alexander Sack concept of "Odious Debt" to sort of clean the slate, adopt the philosophical concept of Sir Clifford Douglas's Social Credit (the economic financial system should serve the people versus the people serving the system), and eventually going to non debt based financing like North Dakota 'State Bank'. If every state did so the banking cartel would be weakened tremendously.
I can appreciate your attempt to think outside the box. While it's nice to think everyone's labor unit in time worth is the same, a simple look at the island exercise ( X amount of people are stuck on a deserted island). If one person has knowledge of indigenous plants to the island which are edible and someone else knows nothing, whose time /labor unit is more valuable?
Money is a medium of exchange to facilitate trade and account for value. By itself, money has no value and is an abstraction for the reality of goods and services.
In American law, the Congress has power to coin money (stamp bullion) and borrow money. It has no power to create money.
Can you guess who does have the power to create a medium of exchange?
Look at a coupon (private promissory note) sometime. See the fine print : "cash value 1/20 of a cent". It has a face value denominated in goods and services, but it cannot have a significant "cash value."
If one's private notes (coupons) were acceptable within one's community, such a medium of exchange would be outside the purview of usury and government.
True, but I think Uncle Sam would want a word with anyone attempting such action.
Money is a medium of exchange to facilitate trade and account for value. By itself, money has no value and is an abstraction for the reality of goods and services.
In American law, the Congress has power to coin money (stamp bullion) and borrow money. It has no power to create money.
Can you guess who does have the power to create a medium of exchange?
Look at a coupon (private promissory note) sometime. See the fine print : "cash value 1/20 of a cent". It has a face value denominated in goods and services, but it cannot have a significant "cash value."
If one's private notes (coupons) were acceptable within one's community, such a medium of exchange would be outside the purview of usury and government.
Most money in our typical economy is created via the Private Banking system
Coinage is actually through the Treasury, part of the Executive.
And Congress can effectively create money via deficit spending.
Of course the Fed, a private agency with Federal oversight can create money.
Okay, my bad, it seems that my idea is already being embraced by some around the world. Although it seems like all the local Timebanks that I have found promote themselves as almost "charitable". But I was happy to see that not ALL humans were only driven by taking the most advantage possible of their fellow man. It is nice to see that there are SOME people who believe in making an exchange with an equal investment from both parties involved without the need for "profit" above one's actual investment of time.
Ultimately it is energy that is behind all currency. No govt or bank can monetize without people's acceptance and their energy/value. Govt and Banks are constructs with no value other than that which they derive from people.There is no higher value than people in an economy. They are the alpha and omega. This simple truth is often obfuscated.
When one gives permission to have a representation of their value/energy created and then hands control of that representation to another entity, the controlling entity has just gained enormous advantage.
If one wants to eliminate middle men, one could be their own bank. Accounting is about keeping track. One should consider the purposes of keeping track and decide what is really useful.
There is no need to focus on time as a unit of account. However, there are uses of "hours" already in intentional communities, such as Ithaca Hours.
As pointed out, time and money have been connected for awhile.
IthacaHours
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The Ithaca HOUR is a local currency used in Ithaca, New York and is the oldest and largest local currency system in the United States that is still operating.
...
a general shift away from cash transactions towards electronic transfers with debit or credit cards.
DancingRabbit Ecovillage's Local Currency (once used an hours currency until recently iirc) The valuation does not appear to be fully explained in this newer system.
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The ELM system is a modified version of a LETS (Local Exchange Trading System),
There are other models, as well. Inclusive, open, balanced models will eventually prevail. ubuntu: Contributionism Part 1 - Introduction
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“Let each citizen contribute their natural talents or acquired skills to the greater benefit of all in the community.” Michael Tellinger.
Then there are resource based models.
For the most part the bigger issues with alternatives appear to come from govt/banks. The current debt-slavery system we have is not accidental. It is an unsustainable model that will eventually be replaced either way. It is simply a matter of time.
I see there are many questions and doubts about the concept of time as currency. This makes perfect sense because we have always been brainwashed...
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I am not going to point for point every post because as I stated in the OP, the concept of time as currency would be very revolutionary and would need to be fully fleshed out...
That's disappointing.
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*Note* No, an accountant's hour is not worth more than the garbage man's hour in a time currency system. One would rather be an accountant because it is a nicer job to have. The ease of the time spent would be the "profit" or "higher reward" for that job. However, his time, in and of itself, is not worth more.
That's not going to work, is it? Some jobs require a colossal investment of time up front. And some of those professions are high-stress, unpleasant ones. How can you build specialists if there is no way to compensate acquired expertise?
I'm a network with engineer with a couple of decades of experience, and I can fix a network problem in one-tenth the time a guy fresh from deVry can. How is my job "more pleasant" than his? More to the point, if it's a societal good to have networks that run, how are you going to make people like me spend the long nights reading up on network tech if there is no reward for doing so?
I'm interested, but if you're not going to lay out fixes to what seems to be obvious weaknesses, what's the point?
Welcome to City-Data: Not only can I determine the market value of your time, skill, and profession for myself, you, and Bill from Toledo...I need any objectors to my infallible wisdom to provide acceptable (in my eyes) alternatives to my problems (or potential problems) before a fictional 3rd party (the State) can enforce my morality on everyone under penalty of imprisonment or death.
Every so often I start thinking for myself. Forgive me.
Oh, give it a rest. Time spent bartering is time lost perfecting skill sets. I don't want the surgeon spend his time trying to swap chickens or whatever for an oil change for his car, I want him to focus on his surgery skills. Having an accepted exchange medium is efficient. The surgeon can operate on the chicken farmer and use the compensation directly to have his oil changed. Easy.
Bitcoins are mined using computers. This is not using time as a unit of account. This is an alternative decentralized currency. Time is a factor, but that is pretty much true of everything in the matrix, lol.
For the most part the bigger issues with alternatives appear to come from govt/banks. The current debt-slavery system we have is not accidental. It is an unsustainable model that will eventually be replaced either way. It is simply a matter of time.
From your mouth to God's ears. Aside from the Central Banking scam that controls most of the world I do have other issues with the money token systems. Particularly any system that still allows things such as usury and partial reserve "banking" scams. I personally find the idea of "money" making "money" as the most absurd of all constructs. The entire "financier" class are nothing but parasites who produce absolutely nothing but a fictional debt out of their fictional investment. Also, money tokens distort what is invested in exchanges. The tokens themselves represent not investment but rather advantage or leverage one has over others. For some obtaining tokens is rather devoid of any effort whatsoever while others can struggle greatly to obtain any tokens at all. When these two disparate individuals enter into exchange of "value" for "value" one receives far more than the other.
Anyway, anything other than the current world-wide system of Central Bank notes is an improvement for sure.
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Aside from the Central Banking scam that controls most of the world I do have other issues with the money token systems. Particularly any system that still allows things such as usury and partial reserve "banking" scams. I personally find the idea of "money" making "money" as the most absurd of all constructs. The entire "financier" class are nothing but parasites who produce absolutely nothing but a fictional debt out of their fictional investment. Also, money tokens distort what is invested in exchanges. The tokens themselves represent not investment but rather advantage or leverage one has over others. For some obtaining tokens is rather devoid of any effort whatsoever while others can struggle greatly to obtain any tokens at all. When these two disparate individuals enter into exchange of "value" for "value" one receives far more than the other.
