Timebanking

[LoAmmi]

Has anybody here had any experience or heard of this concept? I was reading a book by Ralph Nader today and came across it. The general idea is that you sign up and when you invest an hour into doing something for another person, it gets you an hour to either donate or for someone else to help you. For example, watch someone's children for three hours and then you could get three hours for someone to mow your lawn. It seems like a good idea on paper but I'm unsure how it would play out in reality. You can see some of the info here:

What is Timebanking? | TimeBanks USA

 

[Michie]

Has anybody here had any experience or heard of this concept? I was reading a book by Ralph Nader today and came across it. The general idea is that you sign up and when you invest an hour into doing something for another person, it gets you an hour to either donate or for someone else to help you. For example, watch someone's children for three hours and then you could get three hours for someone to mow your lawn. It seems like a good idea on paper but I'm unsure how it would play out in reality. You can see some of the info here:

What is Timebanking? | TimeBanks USA

Interesting idea but it is not without its concerns.

 

[LoAmmi]

Interesting idea but it is not without its concerns.

Indeed. Plenty of concerns.

 

[Fantine]

It's pretty much like bartering, isn't it?

The only difference might be that in bartering you wouldn't be doing a straight hour-for-hour exchange.

I had two piano students whose parents wanted to barter. One raised chickens and gave me eggs. The value of the eggs didn't equal the value of the lessons, but they were a nice family and I was OK with it. They gave me a few dozen eggs a week, some of which I donated to the church.

The other student's dad was an optometrist. That wasn't an even dollar exchange, but he just told me to keep track of the lessons and take it off for new eyeglasses, contacts, etc. I would have been fine either way, but he seemed to want to do an informal barter.

I have also participated in babysitting coops. You would get one point for babysitting one child, and 1/2 a point for each additional child. But most of the time my friends and I just kept track informally.

So yes, it's been around for years in one form or another.