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To: Behind Liberal Lines

When I lived in Ithaca in the 90s, I had a part-time job cleaning for a small home farming business. They paid me in Hours, which I then spent at the Farmer’s Market and various other venues. I felt like I was getting a fair deal for my effort.


13 posted on 12/05/2008 12:44:24 PM PST by Scothia (Sarah! Anyone else would Palin comparison.)
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To: Scothia; Behind Liberal Lines
> When I lived in Ithaca in the 90s, I had a part-time job cleaning for a small home farming business. They paid me in Hours, which I then spent at the Farmer’s Market and various other venues. I felt like I was getting a fair deal for my effort.

I view Ithaca Hours as an interesting demonstration that paper money is simply a medium of exchange, nothing more. I've never viewed US Dollars in any other way. No intrinsic value, just a representation of potential value if somebody who has something you want will take the paper in exchange.

Having lived in or near Ithaca for 30 years, I will say that the Ithaca Hours experiment was one of the less disastrous ones. As long as one could find someone with a service you needed, and they accepted Hours, you could do fine.

Being able to buy at the Farmer's Market or Greenstar is good, but unless your other worldly needs are along the lines of spiritual healing or chiropractic services, you might be out of luck.

My (sliding) rate as a computer consultant was typically between $50 and $75 per hour. Why would I work for $10?

The Ithaca Hours site (http://www.ithacahours.org/ indicates that about 10,000 Hours are in circulation. That's $100,000, not bad for Ithaca, but small potatoes anywhere else.

19 posted on 12/05/2008 7:15:30 PM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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