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It's a way to keep money circulating in the local community among local businesses, instead of being siphoned out by the truckload through Big Box stores

Huh? Please explain, I could really use a laugh this afternoon.

C'mon, get with the program.

Everyone just photo-copies the amount of money they need...and NO more!

It'll work for sure! Screw them New York banks and especially the Big Boxes!

I dropped one on my toe once.

"Money" is based on a common agreement - if you agree to accept something in exchange for your property, then the transaction can proceed, be it a 20-dollar bill, an ounce of gold, or three cows.

Debt-backed Federal Reserve Notes circulate not only because of the strength and prosperity of the United States lending assurance that taxes will cover the debt that they represent, but also because of "legal tender" laws REQUIRING people to accept Federal Reserve Notes as an offer of payment.

Ithaca Hours circulate voluntarily, rather than by force of law, and are placed into circulation by businesses that agree to be listed in a monthly directory, who either pay their employees with them or spend them at other businesses in the directory.

So for example, a farmer might pay his workers in Hours to pick corn, and then the market might pay the farmer in Hours for his corn, and then the workers might go spend their Hours at the market for their groceries. No debt, no banks, just voluntary exchanges of value.