Ithaca HOURS

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Must be someone from Ithaca here...

Anyway, they've apparently developed their own local time-based currency (a bit like the UK's LETS, and Josiah Warren's Time Store, opened in 1827.)

http://www.ithacahours.org/

[walto]

Cookie's an Ithacan. I lived there six years myself.

Hey, tell us about the Time Store. Isn't Warren the Single-Taxer/adventurer/tennis pro who had something to do with founding Andorra? I believe he set up several single tax enclaves in Harvard Mass. too. I like hearing about his exploits: seems like somebody should make a movie about him.

'Course maybe I've got the name wrong and am thinking of somebody else!

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

A short biography by his son, which I just found, is at:
http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/warren.html

Plus more about him here.

Don't know much about him myself. Read about the time store a long time ago, he'd buy the goods and add transport expenses on, then his income was dependent on the time the customer spent using his services - stopwatch would start when they entered the shop, then they'd pay for his time, not an arbitrary mark-up. Think he managed to get a lot of people running the same system, with meetings to decide the value of labour. Don't know any more about him, although I'm going to check out that bio. Also sounds like a precursor to Michael Albert's Parecon (which I don't like).

Stuff about LETS (in case anyone's interested), can be found here - http://www.letslinkuk.org/

I looked into it about seven years ago, but I'm pretty sure they're taxable (may not be the case now), which sort of spoils the point of it.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Cookie. You know about this? How's it working?

[cookie]

I don't use Ithaca Hours myself (though I've certainly considered it). I do read the Hours guide to see what goods and services are offered and you can do alot with Hours, especially on services like massage, house-cleaning, sewing, music lessons etc---things where an individual actually trades their time/skill for the local money. You can use the Hours to purchase things like food, though many businesses will accept only partial payment in Hours (the rest in hard cold American cash). The "hippie dippie" businesses like the food co-op and several of the health-food restaurants tend to accept more Hours than the more mainstream businesses. Some places will accept full payment in Hours simply because they politically support the idea. Hours only work if people use and accept them. Many people got behind the idea, including my bank, Alternatives Federal Credit Union.

Hours are a cool little aspect of this town. Ithaca's a place where you can survive on very little money if you take advantage of these sorts of alternative ideas.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Good to hear it works, had a quick look at the site and it looks like there's a lot of things you can use it for. How many people living in Ithaca?

[cookie]

The population of Ithaca in the last census was 29, 287 (there is more census info here: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/popInfo.php?locIndex=922

This is a college town (Cornell University and Ithaca College) and I don't know if any students were included in the census count (my husband participated as a census taker so I'll ask him whether they counted only permanent residents. The population of the town is much higher during the academic year than in the summer. The population is also quite transient with people who come here for jobs, stay a few years, then move on to other jobs elsewhere (this is particularly apparent in the academic circles).

I told my husband that somebody started a thread about the Hours. One thing he pointed out is that two local movie theaters accept them. Movies are generally so expensive that Hours can really save some money if you're a film buff. Another thing he pointed out to me is that the businesses who accept only partial payment in Hours do so in part because Uncle Sam and NY State do not accept Hours as payment on taxes.

[Sergio Zamora]

So this is like Disney dollars

[cookie]

Not like Disney Dollars in that you don't really have to buy them.

When you join you pay a "listing fee." This gets you in the directory as either an Hours service provider or Hours accepter. You receive 2 Hours in return for paying the listing fee.

However, anyone can use Hours. Say somebody wants to study privately with me. I can allow them to use Hours as part or all of my fee and then I can use them anywhere they are accepted. I only need to part with American cash money if I wish to be listed in the directory.

[relyles]

I went to college in Ithaca from 1984 - 1988. Maybe could have used something like that on those days when food money was low.

[walto]

I did get the name wrong. The Harvard enclave-tennis playing-Andorra-adventurer-Georgist was named "Fiske Warren."

A relative maybe?

[cookie]

Hey, relyles: I first came to Ithaca in 1984. I just never left. Which school did you attend? Ithaca or Cornell? Just curious.

[cookie]

http://www.ilovenyphotos.com/ithgorges/ithgorges.html

I live less than a half-mile from Ithaca Falls. It's a pretty place and a great place to be an artist because you can eke out a subsistance whether you're associated with the schools or not.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy the photos of the waterfalls.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Cool. Not much in the way of waterfalls in England. Our rivers barely move at all, let alone fall hundreds of feet. Walt, you'll like Josiah Warren I think, even if he's not your tennis dude.

[walto]

Yeah, I checked out those sites and he's definitely my kind of wacko. Even developed his own form of musical notation--never used by anybody, apparently.

Seems like a very cool guy. Thanks for the links.