I’ve talked before about how all currencies are fundamentally social constructions that function as trust tokens or “units of caring“. As with anything constructed, we get to institute it according to our needs. Also, there needn’t be only 1 currency of exchange. How trust tokens are generated and distributed will influence social interactions on the both the macro and micro scale. So, what kinds of currency might be more pro-social?
I first learned about Time Banking from Andrew Yang (former presidential and NYC majorial candidate). The basic premis is that people donate an hour of their time to the community or a member of their community, and thus acrue an hour. Then as some future time, they can ask another member of their community to assist them. Whom they ask depends on the project and expertise required. Ie, An retiree watches a neighbhod child for 2 hours. Next week that retiree asks the local handy-person to pull leaves from the gutter. The handy-person then as 2 hours acrued if they need to borrow someone’s truck to haul furniture. The beauty here is that we can value people on the same level playing ground, bypass the exchange of dollars / euros / etc, and promote community engagement and trust.
The issue, as in many cases, is how to scale beyond the dunbar number (150)? But, “We have the technology!” Secure tracking apps (just an example, not necessarily an exemplar) can creat transparent digital trust networks independent of the dollar system. Many challenges in larger communities are due to the lack of frequent longer term social interactions that foster trust organically.
An ecosystem and economy that has a robust time banking network could nicely complement a 24/7/365 school. Given that something like OneSchool will needs lots of hands and hearts, anything that can promote community engagement will be force multiplying!
Consider exploring your local Time Bank!