Posted by
Steve Smith on
Aug 08, 2012; 5:53pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Fwd-Starbucks-signs-up-with-Square-tp7580337p7580343.html
Tory -
Why not both?
Both is good. We are so far beyond a barter economy that It would
be absurd (as if that usually stops me?) to suggest that we could
revert... I can just see myself walking into the Quik Stop with a
handful of chickens clutched by their legs hanging from one hand
cooing and clucking gently but confusedly as I say "put 4 chickens
on pump number 10 and could you throw in a pack of Native Spirit
Blue for this pretty rock I found?" It might make for a nice scene
in an independent movie shot directly to iPhone, but it probably
wouldn't work out so well in real life.
I just want to remind us that all of our high-tech gadgetry often
helps us race *away* from where we probably want to be... and I
agree with your own anecdotal experience with PayPal and the Square
that they *support* you in engaging personally, etc. rather than the
opposite.
Yes, this is of what I speak... though not living *in* Santa Fe nor
being very engaged in it's economy, it isn't as obvious for me
specifically. When it spreads more and maybe gets more streamlined
(when at a Garage Sale, Organic Market, or high end Canyon Road
Gallery, the seller whips out their mobile device and says "will
that be cash, charge or SantaFeHours?" then we are really on to
something.
I knew of this first as "Ithaca Dollars", an experiment (still in
progress?) in Ithaca NY maybe 30 years ago. What caught me most was
the "normalization of value"... that a Dentist's hour was worth the
same as a day laborers hour... I'm not sure how the difference in
specialized equipment (XRay machine vs a shovel) or preparation (12
years of college vs growing up dirt poor working hard) is
accomodated, but my gut feeling is that it isn't... and maybe
shouldn't be. Sure, the day laborer maybe trades 3 hours to the
Dentist's 1 hour to cover the dental assistant and receptionist ...
etc. but the point is the Dentist's time isn't presumed to be
worth 10 or 20 times that of the day laborer. This is probably
important to both sides of the normally unbalanced equation... to
see each other as people again, and to value what they do and
perhaps therefore what they do.
In practice, this probably only works with excess labor... the
Dentist is going to find it hard to make this trade for more than
20% of his work, or whatever schedule he doesn't already have
filled... after all he has expenses the day laborer doesn't. A
Mercedes costs more than an old pickup as do the Country Club fees
compared to a walk in the park or a cruise in the Fjords of
Scandinavia vs a camping trip to the lake. And while the day
laborer would gladly give a few hours of his work in exchange for
having a tooth pulled or filled (as appropriate and needed), a
Dentist's time is normally totally worthless to him... what can a
Dentist do for you if you don't need a tooth pulled or filled and
really, how many times a month can you have your teeth cleaned just
because the Dentist needs his septic system dug up and replaced?
But I'll bet that even a little bit of this is empowering... I find
it more in my personal life, as the principles of "help thy
neighbor" and pay it forward are part of why I choose to live in the
country and mostly among people of very modest means. The
Pojoaque/Nambe/Tesuque/Espanola Valleys are littered with middle
class folks (many who work at LANL) among home there are many others
who are living in a small adobe built by their great grandparents,
modified by their parents and grandparents and in the process of a
fresh upgrade to accomodate a baby on the way. Many live at least
partly off of the garden, the chickens and the goats they keep, heat
with firewood they collect themselves, repair their own appliances
and vehicles, etc. This mixture isn't always ideal for all
parties, but in many cases, the neighbors of wildly different
backgrounds have become friends and they *do* exchange via an
undocumented barter system... one helps the other and vice-versa
because they are neighbors and both know not to take advantage lest
they lose the neighborly relation. The middle-class (often)
city-folk learn as much or more from their country-bumpkin neighbors
than vice-versa.
And some don't. They put a gate on their driveway with a remote
opener and come and go to their jobs (or to their trust fund
managers) and the opera and give their neighbors out in their fields
or up on their roof patching a hole a hairy eyeball as they drive
by, grumbling about the dogs happily yapping at the tires of their
hummer or range rover as they drive by with windows rolled up, AC
and Stereo cranked up while texting and scheduling on their mobile
phone.
And sometimes the neighbor is third generation heroin addict and
pusher... grandma is still selling but only using to settle her
bones, while the great-grandson is running with a nasty crowd and
his best friend just shot someone and went to juvie until he turns
18... so of course we want to lock our gates and turn our faces
away from our neighbors... they might be dangerous. Maybe we can
buy heroin with Santa Fe Hours? Probably not... but $US whether in
a paper bill recently rolled to snort a line of dangerously cut
Cocaine or as an online transaction via your Square spends well
anywhere, anytime. The IRS and the ATF and the DEA would like to
know where every $US is spent (for obvious to them reasons?) but I
am pretty sure that Santa Fe Time, by it's very nature is less risky
as a medium of funding bad behaviour.
It is basic economics that says money is worth more when it is
flowing fast... but I think what it is to be human requires a
different pace... Kurzweil would say "the only way out is through"
(the Singularity that is), but I'd like to think otherwise.
I'll go back to Yap currency. I recently gifted the run down shed
in my back yard to a friend who covets it. For her birthday I gave
it to her and said I would even help her disassemble (demolition)
and move (haul off) it whenever ready. I also have a nice bucket of
whitewash I offered to let her paint my fence with. In the
meantime she now owns a perfectly good Picaresque but generally (to
me) unusable building which she may in turn gift or trade to someone
else... I may find that her Dentist will come by one day to run his
hands over it, admire it and tell me what a good shed one of his
Patients traded him for a gold crown!
Go on, Steve, we love it when you rant.....
And those who don't know how to roll their eyes and hit "Next"!
Thanks for the encouragement... I think<grin>. What
important deadline am I avoiding again? I forget!
- Steve
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