Time
banking
Despite its
still low popularity and its totally different system, time banking has already
been used in many countries and the results would seem to be extraordinary.
This organization consists on a group of people who decide to make works, which
require their abilities, and they are paid with time. In other words, one offers
a service for someone and then, he can use the paid hours for asking for
another service.
Although I had
never heard about it, it would seem that some developed countries such as the
UK and the USA are entirely introduced in this innovative exchange system.
However, in our country, there are important cities as Barcelona that are
taking up time banking.
On the one
hand, there may be some benefits such as the strengthening of help and altruism
and the fact that you are more or less “rich in time” in function of your
abilities. It does not matter if you are born in a humble family, provided you
are able to offer demanded services you can enjoy a comfortable life.
On the
other hand, there will always be people against this new system and they will prefer
to keep with their loaded bank accounts instead of taking risks and try
something new. Moreover, Spain has always been a narrow minded country.
To sum up,
time banking could become a useful exchange system which might make our life
more comfortable and it could eradicate the difference between rich and poor. However,
it might be really hard to convince everybody.
Sergi Briansó and Marc Arbonés
