hOURS
helluva
Organized United Reciprocation System
hOURS is a trading system that strengthens and
enriches communities in which it’s used.
hOURS is an enormous “You scratch my back,
I’ll scratch yours” scheme. There are way
more than just the 2 people, and the reciprocation can be indirect. For example, say Paul helps Diane paint her
house, Diane cuts Felicia’s hair, Felicia gives Sean a clarinet lesson, Sean
babysits Melinda’s kids, and Melinda fixes Paul’s leaky faucet. Everyone’s happy. But we need not have such obvious, closed loops like this. By recording the time spent – hOURS can be
more free-flowing, with many such loops intersecting one another. Then we need not worry about arranging
reciprocation. It happens naturally as
people put into, and take from, the system.
Suppose Paul spent 2 hours painting Diane’s place, then Diane spent one
hour cutting Felicia’s hair. Paul’s
balance would be +2. Diane was at -2,
but brought it up to -1 with the haircutting, and now Felicia is at -1. That takes care of Diane’s part in the above
loop, but still at minus one, she then, let’s say, feeds Marnie’s cat and
waters her plants while she’s away. She
squares her account and Marnie goes off on another such circle. And so on and so on. Ultimately, using this hOURS device, we all
get to know our neighbors and help each other out.
hOURS
is a new twist on the idea of a LETS (Local Economic Trading System). These first appeared in western Canada in
the early ‘80s and now are widespread in the UK, Australia and New
Zealand. LETS’s are designed to
alleviate poverty in economically depressed areas. Recession/depression is simply an unavailability of money. The key insight of those who started the
first LETS was that they needn’t be subject to the whims of banks, corporations
or the government (those who control most of the money). They could make their own. This isn’t counterfeiting, because they
didn’t presume to make dollars, but rather a whole new form of currency
that was locally controlled. In some
cases, that currency might be imaginary and arbitrary, but if you think about
it, so is the dominant national currency.
Dollars have no intrinsic value, and are only good to have insofar as other
people want them. What they are capable
of doing is greasing the wheels of exchange.
People in depressed areas have plenty of skills, resources and labor to
utilize, but lack a mechanism to crank it all up socially.
Creating alternative currencies, such as
the Hour in this case, we establish that mechanism. In fact we improve upon the dollar. We recognize what’s true in the axiom “money is the root of all
evil.” retaining what’s good about money, while rejecting what’s bad. Rather than creating an imaginary construct,
which people then fight over the meaning of, hOURS uses something real, units
of time, which have the same ability to grease the wheels of exchange. For example, in trades under the hOURS
system, services are services - an hour of dentistry is worth as much as an hour
of washing dishes. Under the national
monetary system, the more imaginary units of dollars get fought over. There we find dentists are apt to feel their
time is worth more than a dishwasher’s time and we get social tensions. hOURS is all about being friendly. People and skills severely disrespected by
the main economy become valuable with hOURS.
This is good news for those considered unemployable by “the system”: the
mentally ill, the severely handicapped, the infirm etc. They all have something to
contribute. Kids and the elderly can
get involved. Many of them are craving
ways to be useful. Also, various skills
that the dominant economy chooses not to compensate can find a home here: for
example, services that have traditionally been “women’s work”, or esoteric
abilities like story-telling, crafting angry letters-to-the-editor, consulting
for endeavors like downshifting, etc.
hOURS is a way to empower those who have been disempowered by the
economy, which is probably everyone to some extent. Do what you like to do, not only what some employer is willing to
hire you for. [Click
here to read about more 'evil' aspects of money that hOURS subverts.]
A central database is kept with everyone’s
“account” information. When services
are performed, the parties involved inform the record keeper, who makes note of
it. We need not worry about squaring
everyone’s account to zero. The system
can continue indefinitely, with people vacillating from plus to minus, staying
put for a while, or whatever. Hopefully
no one will keep a large negative balance for a long time. If that happens, other participants can
suggest ways of earning hours to that person.
If that doesn’t work, people can cease performing services for
them. No one is ever under any
obligation to trade, for any reason.
Bottom line, if something isn’t worth the price, i.e. if so and so doing
2 hours of x for you isn’t worth 2 hours of your time, then don’t have them do
it. Besides mutual agreement, there are
really no hard and fast rules. The
point of hOURS is not to constrain anyone or be a burden in any way, but to
free up possibilities and potential.
The record keeper will also maintain a participant directory, as well as
a sort of ‘yellow pages’ in which everyone can list the services they have to
offer, and those which they need, which can be just about anything. This is done online, [see the listings] and hard copies of such will be periodically
sent to those who would like them.
Can goods be bought and sold under the hOURS
system? Sure, just remember an Hour of
money represents an hour of time. Use that
to determine what a desirable price would be.
If an item can be readily reconceived of as a service (the service of
providing that item) use that to determine the price.
So
why isn’t the ‘h’ capitalized you may be wondering: Because both “hours” and
“ours” are good names for the program.
The first is obvious, but “OURS” captures some important features of it
as well. It’s literally ours, belonging
to the people involved. No bank or
corporation has the ability to pull funding.
No absentee owners siphon off rents and dividends. A community that uses hOURS is strengthened
by the increased interpersonal contacts.
It also becomes wealthier thorough two mechanisms. Unmet needs get paired with un-utilized
skills. And by using this form of
currency for exchanges that were being denominated with dollars, those dollars
are freed up for other purposes.
What
are you waiting for?
Now tell me about day-to-day nuts-n-bolts
The political significance of alternative currency