Tory -
Why not both?
Both is good. We are so far beyond a barter economy that It would be
absurd (as if that usually stops me?) to suggest that we could
revert... I can just see myself walking into the Quik Stop with a
handful of chickens clutched by their legs hanging from one hand cooing
and clucking gently but confusedly as I say "put 4 chickens on pump
number 10 and could you throw in a pack of Native Spirit Blue for this
pretty rock I found?" It might make for a nice scene in an independent
movie shot directly to iPhone, but it probably wouldn't work out so well
in real life.
I just want to remind us that all of our high-tech gadgetry often helps
us race *away* from where we probably want to be... and I agree with
your own anecdotal experience with PayPal and the Square that they
*support* you in engaging personally, etc. rather than the opposite.
What is your take on things like the Santa Fe Time Bank
<http://www.santafetimebank.org/SFTB/SFTB.html>?
Yes, this is of what I speak... though not living *in* Santa Fe nor
being very engaged in it's economy, it isn't as obvious for me
specifically. When it spreads more and maybe gets more streamlined
(when at a Garage Sale, Organic Market, or high end Canyon Road Gallery,
the seller whips out their mobile device and says "will that be cash,
charge or SantaFeHours?" then we are really on to something.
I knew of this first as "Ithaca Dollars", an experiment (still in
progress?) in Ithaca NY maybe 30 years ago. What caught me most was the
"normalization of value"... that a Dentist's hour was worth the same as
a day laborers hour... I'm not sure how the difference in specialized
equipment (XRay machine vs a shovel) or preparation (12 years of college
vs growing up dirt poor working hard) is accomodated, but my gut feeling
is that it isn't... and maybe shouldn't be. Sure, the day laborer maybe
trades 3 hours to the Dentist's 1 hour to cover the dental assistant and
receptionist ... etc. but the point is the Dentist's time isn't
presumed to be worth 10 or 20 times that of the day laborer. This is
probably important to both sides of the normally unbalanced equation...
to see each other as people again, and to value what they do and perhaps
therefore what they do.
In practice, this probably only works with excess labor... the Dentist
is going to find it hard to make this trade for more than 20% of his
work, or whatever schedule he doesn't already have filled... after all
he has expenses the day laborer doesn't. A Mercedes costs more than an
old pickup as do the Country Club fees compared to a walk in the park or
a cruise in the Fjords of Scandinavia vs a camping trip to the lake.
And while the day laborer would gladly give a few hours of his work in
exchange for having a tooth pulled or filled (as appropriate and
needed), a Dentist's time is normally totally worthless to him... what
can a Dentist do for you if you don't need a tooth pulled or filled and
really, how many times a month can you have your teeth cleaned just
because the Dentist needs his septic system dug up and replaced?
But I'll bet that even a little bit of this is empowering... I find it
more in my personal life, as the principles of "help thy neighbor" and
pay it forward are part of why I choose to live in the country and
mostly among people of very modest means. The
Pojoaque/Nambe/Tesuque/Espanola Valleys are littered with middle class
folks (many who work at LANL) among home there are many others who are
living in a small adobe built by their great grandparents, modified by
their parents and grandparents and in the process of a fresh upgrade to
accomodate a baby on the way. Many live at least partly off of the
garden, the chickens and the goats they keep, heat with firewood they
collect themselves, repair their own appliances and vehicles, etc.
This mixture isn't always ideal for all parties, but in many cases, the
neighbors of wildly different backgrounds have become friends and they
*do* exchange via an undocumented barter system... one helps the other
and vice-versa because they are neighbors and both know not to take
advantage lest they lose the neighborly relation. The middle-class
(often) city-folk learn as much or more from their country-bumpkin
neighbors than vice-versa.
And some don't. They put a gate on their driveway with a remote opener
and come and go to their jobs (or to their trust fund managers) and the
opera and give their neighbors out in their fields or up on their roof
patching a hole a hairy eyeball as they drive by, grumbling about the
dogs happily yapping at the tires of their hummer or range rover as they
drive by with windows rolled up, AC and Stereo cranked up while texting
and scheduling on their mobile phone.
And sometimes the neighbor is third generation heroin addict and
pusher... grandma is still selling but only using to settle her bones,
while the great-grandson is running with a nasty crowd and his best
friend just shot someone and went to juvie until he turns 18... so of
course we want to lock our gates and turn our faces away from our
neighbors... they might be dangerous. Maybe we can buy heroin with
Santa Fe Hours? Probably not... but $US whether in a paper bill
recently rolled to snort a line of dangerously cut Cocaine or as an
online transaction via your Square spends well anywhere, anytime. The
IRS and the ATF and the DEA would like to know where every $US is spent
(for obvious to them reasons?) but I am pretty sure that Santa Fe Time,
by it's very nature is less risky as a medium of funding bad behaviour.
It is basic economics that says money is worth more when it is flowing
fast... but I think what it is to be human requires a different pace...
Kurzweil would say "the only way out is through" (the Singularity that
is), but I'd like to think otherwise.
I'll go back to Yap currency. I recently gifted the run down shed in my
back yard to a friend who covets it. For her birthday I gave it to her
and said I would even help her disassemble (demolition) and move (haul
off) it whenever ready. I also have a nice bucket of whitewash I
offered to let her paint my fence with. In the meantime she now owns a
perfectly good Picaresque but generally (to me) unusable building which
she may in turn gift or trade to someone else... I may find that her
Dentist will come by one day to run his hands over it, admire it and
tell me what a good shed one of his Patients traded him for a gold crown!
Go on, Steve, we love it when you rant.....
And those who don't know how to roll their eyes and hit "Next"! Thanks
for the encouragement... I think<grin>. What important deadline am I
avoiding again? I forget!
- Steve
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