Download The Miner’s Canary

Time Dollars in Action
• Elderplan (Member to Member)
• Cross-Age Peer Tutoring
•Youth Court
Time Dollar Youth Court
• 53% of African American males 18-35 in
prison, parole, probation or warrant out for
their arrest
• 30-40% of Juvenile Arrests “No Papered”
• 31% Recidivism Rate for Juveniles “No
Papered”
Cross-Age Peer Tutoring
• 40% of students never finish high school
• 10-20% of students classified Special
Education or Attention Deficit Deficient by
4-5th grade
Elderplan Member-to-Member
• 20% of Seniors spend time in hospital
annually
• Social isolation and depression affect
physical health
• Long term care prohibitively expensive
The Miner’s Canary
A Different Economic System
• 40% of productive work occurs outside
the market economy (Becker, Folbre)
• $1.9 trillion = value of household work in
the US in 1998 (25% of GDP)
• $196 billion = national value of informal
care giving in 1997
The Core Economy
The underlying operating system
of society
A New Operating System
• Assets
• Redefining Work
• Reciprocity
• Social Capital
Assets
The real wealth of this society is its
people. Every human being can be a
builder and a contributor.
Redefining Work
Work must be redefined to include
whatever it takes to rear healthy
children, preserve families, make
neighborhoods safe and vibrant, care for
the frail and vulnerable, redress
injustice, and make democracy work.
Reciprocity
Giving is more powerful as a two-way
street. To avoid creating dependency,
acts of helping must trigger reciprocity:
giving back by helping other. “You need
me” becomes “We need each other.”
Social Capital
“No man is an island.” Informal
support systems, extended families, and
social networks are held together by
trust, reciprocity, and civic engagement.
Complementary Currencies
Need
• Banking Systems Need Money to Run
• Social Inventions Need Money to Run
Let’s Start with Social Justice:
• Tax-Exempt Status
• Reject Market Pricing to Secure
Foundation & Government Support
• Co-Production = Funding
Shifting the Burden of Proof
• Redefining the range of the possible
• Producing Different Outcomes
From Why? to
Why Not?