The only thing we can not buy is time! It is a scarce and valuable resource. Moreover we can not know exactly how much of it we have left, therefore it would be impossible to give a price to our time! Time is priceless!
So we better not waste it! Carpe diem, someone said long time ago!
Being a resource we can trade and exchange time: just as a common currency! From this idea time banks were born!
Timebanking is a sustainable and equal way to trade skills within a community, while building circles of trust and reciprocity.
Instead of dollars, time credits are used as payment. You earn time credits for the work you do, and then use them to ‘buy’ another member’s time to get the services you need. And the most beautiful thing EVERYONE’S TIME IS EQUAL. No matter what type of work is done, one hour always equals one time credit. 1 = 1. Every person is equally valued.
Just to recall… Time banks are nothing new; the world’s first time bank was started in Japan by Teruko Mizushima in 1973
In the US there are 300 registered time banks. The smallest has 15 members; the largest, 3,000. At present, time banks have enrolled 30,000 members in the United States, 30,000 in the United Kingdom and an additional 100,000 across 34 countries.
Time banks help to bring back the community sense, helping communities to self-help. Especially in these times of high unemployment levels, people just can not access to traditional job and have a equitable compensations.
As the former president of Uruguay once said “When you buy something, make no mistake, the instrument is the silver you’re buying; but in reality you are buying time in your life you had to spend to get that money. It means that when you spend, basically what you’re spending is time of life that has gone” , we all must remember that the most precious thing is our time! So we shall use it properly, sharing it and helping the people closest to us.
If you would like to have more info about time banks I suggest you to visit this links: www.timebanking.org, for a deep insight about timebanking; and www.banchedeltemporimini.org a time bank in our university’s city!
