18Time Banking
A basic function of a society is to bring needs and resources together. But in America today, vast needs exist alongside vast resources of unused time, particularly among retired people and the young.
The first impulse might be to call this a failure of markets, since the market is how Americans believe needs and resources come together. But the failure here is on the commons side—a failure of the informal safety net upon which society depends. Grandpa used to move in with Aunt Millie or one of the kids. Of course, this system hardly worked for everyone, which is why we needed Social Security. But families and neighbors did provide a lot of care for those who could not provide for themselves.
One ingenious model for repairing the ...
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