I saw this on the news when I was up this morning. Apparently there are these places called "Time Banks". The idea is, you sign up with these people. When you help a person, you get credits and when someone helps you, you loose credits.
A example is, your fridge breaks down, a guy comes over and repairs your fridge. You in turn, would like, go over to his house and tutor his children on Math for 4 hours. Pretty good concept, and if the economy keeps going down the tubes, very useful too. This is the way things should be. People helping people.
ID:278080
 Mar 14 2009, 2:51 am
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Trosh Kubyo wrote:
Pretty good concept, and if the economy keeps going down the tubes, very useful too. Um, that's what money is. Money is what keeps track of who was helping who or who provided something for someone;) But anyway, I think it's a neat idea anyway:) | |
No that isn't what money is for. Because money is a really piss poor idea gone wrong. Some people get more money, for less then their equal share of work. And the value of work based on money can be really different depending on a person's standards.
With this concept, at least, a Football player wouldn't get a million credits for just playing a sport. They would have to do something that actually benefited another person. | |
I think you're mistaken. So what, I could get 2 time bank hours for work that it might take someone else to do 1.
With cash, you get what people are willing to pay, and you spend what you're willing to spend for something. Capitalism does have it's faults, no doubt, but "Time Banks" would suffer from the same problem if they were commonplace. | |
Time banks are starting to become quite popular. From what the news cast said, there are several hundred around the country side now. From the maps they showed on TV, it appears at least three of them are in my state, one of them local.
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Trosh Kubyo wrote:
No that isn't what money is for. Because money is a really piss poor idea gone wrong. Some people get more money, for less then their equal share of work. And the value of work based on money can be really different depending on a person's standards. Money is just a concrete idea of value to take place of something with actual value. Money itself is worthless and what gives it its value is what money is traded for. How money is distributed has nothing to do capitalism or money itself, it has to do with the consumer. If the consumers weren't paying billions of dollars a year to watch football or be entertained, it is clear that those who play the sport or act on television wouldn't be making nearly as much money. If the consumer put his money towards research, then we'd have better healthcare. Too bad no one does that. | |
Can't wait until the rednecks get their hands on it!
"I'll beat your kids for three hours if you beat my wife for two hours." | |
Jerico2day wrote:
Trosh Kubyo wrote: Money is a representation of holdings with no value other than what we place on it. You can't say with any certainty that people who hold money deserve it, because you have the scum on both ends of the spectrum; money-hoarding republicans all the way down to trailer trash on welfare, who found out it's tons easier to keep having kids and get paid by the state than it is to go get an education and a job. It also depends where you're standing with your buck, as well -- up until February of this year, $1 USD got you 131 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. The value of money is subjective and its distribution is unfair to say the least, but time only has one value. | |
Mobius Evalon wrote:
...all the way down to trailer trash on welfare, who found out it's tons easier to keep having kids and get paid by the state than it is to go get an education and a job. ...until the welfare checks stop rolling in. Then they're totally boned for (I think) another 7 years before they can apply for welfare again. Or was that Bankruptcy? But yeah, welfare only lasts so long in this country. Good thing, too, otherwise everyone would just be lazy and be on welfare their entire lives. | |
Lovely spin on things, Nadrew. :p
Something seems flawed in the application though... Whats wrong with doing the beatings yourself? Thats half (actually all) the fun. | |
Basically this is just an advanced barter system hooked up to something like Craigslist. Switching to bartering suggests two things: 1) People don't have a lot of confidence in money, and 2) people want to do an end run around taxes.
Taxes being high, or the looming specter of them going up, are one reason a system like this could take off. Inflationary fears are another. I bet this concept really gained a lot more traction last summer, when gas prices broke the $4/gal barrier. It's really no coincidence that gas prices reaching insane all-time highs and a rash of foreclosures would happen at around the same time. Lummox JR | |
Unfortunately, you're wrong here. Take a high school economics class. People are paid based on their contribution to society. Whether or not you agree with that is irrelevant, that's the way it works. What you think is "less than their equal share of work" is not valid.
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Actually, they would probably get more. Assuming that football is popular, and that people spend money on it already, is would not be hard to imagine a million different people deciding to credit a single player for the winning touchdown. Hell, football and things of the like would get much more entertaining in this instance! Imagine everyone on the field trying to be the guy you credit the entire game too... crazy.
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Sounds neat.