main

2009 contents

07 MAR 2009

Funny money and time dollars

As the old dollars disappear, two new currencies struggle to fill the void.

The funny heretics say we can all make funny money out of nothing, just as Wall Street and the government have taught us. This will lead to a new age of abundance, based on laughter and entertainment. We're in charge of our money, and can make it do whatever we want, so long as it's funny.

Funny money is illegal, subversive and opposed by the Inquisition, whose secret agents have infiltrated the funny movement to convert it to time dollars.

Funny people can get away with funny stuff forever, but whenever they fall into seriousness the Inquisition attacks, seizes their funny money and sentences them to do time -- community service. A time dollar is an hour of service.

The Inquisition is quite happy to let the funny movement grow, since it provides them with business. The funny people are quite happy with the Inquisition, since it enforces funniness, provides quality control, and keeps the movement pure. Every funny heretic is initiated by being sworn in as a secret agent of the Inquisition.

Funny money is education in how to create money and realize we have that power. It's also entertainment, games, performance, parties, recruiting, relationships, publicity and eventually creating time dollars.

Time dollars are the volunteer hours every nonprofit has on its books. That's the new money we need to fill the gap. The nonprofits are the new banks. The volunteers have time dollars savings in these banks. Unlike the old banks, whose credit-debit accounting leaves them broke when the music stops, the nonprofits enjoy win-win or credit-credit accounting. They too get credit for the community service hours, often claiming matching funds. Now they can accumulate these hours as time dollars capital.

If they are banks, volunteers can transfer their time dollars to another nonprofit, which is a way of investing in the organizations they wish to support. This is a form of quality control for nonprofits and the time dollars currency, which can go on to perform a wide array of banking, exchange and community service functions.

5867