Editing Time-based currency (section)

==History==
===19th century===
{{main|Labour voucher|Cincinnati Time Store}}

[[File:Truck system of payment by order of Robert Owen and Benj Woolfield, July 22nd 1833 (1294620).jpg|thumb|360px|Truck system of payment by order of Robert Owen and Benj Woolfield, National Equitable Labour Exchange, July 22nd 1833.]]
Time-based currency exchanges date back to the early 19th century.

The [[Cincinnati Time Store]] (1827-1830) was the first in a series of retail stores created by [[United States|American]] [[individualist anarchist]] [[Josiah Warren]] to test his economic [[labor theory of value]].<ref>{{cite journal |page=2 |title=Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908 by James J. Martin and Harry Elmer Barnes |first1=A.F. |last1=Tyler |journal=[[Indiana Magazine of History]] |year=1953}}</ref> The experimental store operated from May 18, 1827, until May 1830.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jujo9fJbhdoC&pg=PA123 |title=Max Stirner's Dialectical Egoism: A New Interpretation |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |first=John F. |last=Welsh |year=2010 |page=123 |access-date=November 28, 2018|isbn=9780739141564 }}</ref> The Cincinnati Time Store experiment in use of labor as a medium of exchange antedated similar European efforts by two decades.<ref name="Fishbein">{{cite journal |title=Anarchism as Ideology and Impulse: Anarchism in America   |journal=[[Film & History]] |last1=Fishbein |first1=Leslie |orig-year=1981 |date=1983 |volume=13 |number=1 |pages=17–22 |issn=0360-3695 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/400648/summary }}</ref>

The National Equitable Labour Exchange was founded by [[Robert Owen]], a Welsh [[socialist]] and labor reformer in [[London]], [[England]], in 1832.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Patmore, Greg|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1032659601|title=A global history of co-operative business|others=Balnave, Nikola.|date=17 April 2018|isbn=978-1-317-27020-1|location=Abingdon, Oxon|oclc=1032659601}}</ref> It was established in [[Birmingham]], England, before folding in 1834. It issued "Labour Notes" similar to banknotes, denominated in units of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 hours. [[John Gray (19th century socialist)|John Gray]], a socialist [[economics|economist]], worked with Owen and later with [[Ricardian socialism|Ricardian Socialists]] and postulated a ''National Chamber of Commerce'' as a central bank issuing a ''labour currency''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/Tl_Display.php?Where=Dc1Title+contains+%27National+Equitable+Labour+Exchange+notes%2C+1832+%28front%29%27+|title=TUC – History Online|access-date=24 February 2015}}</ref>

In 1848, the socialist and first self-designated [[anarchist]] [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]] postulated a system of ''time chits''.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}<!-- This idea appears to originate with Alfred Darimon -->

[[Josiah Warren]] <!-- Why was his date of birth and death included here?  If you want to write in detail about Josiah Warren, contribute to the Josiah Warren article. --> published a book describing [[labor notes (currency)|labor notes]] in 1852.<ref>{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Josiah|title=Equitable Commerce: A New Development of Principles|year=1852|publisher=Burt Franklin Press|location=New York |pages=117 |url=http://tmh.floonet.net/pdf/jwarren.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927024207/http://tmh.floonet.net/pdf/jwarren.pdf|archive-date=2007-09-27}}</ref>

In 1875, [[Karl Marx]] wrote of "Labor Certificates" (''Arbeitszertifikaten'') in his [[Critique of the Gotha Program]] of a "certificate from society that [the labourer] has furnished such and such an amount of labour", which can be used to draw "from the social stock of means of consumption as much as costs the same amount of labour."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/tsushima/labor-certificates.htm|title=Understanding "Labor Certificates" on the Basis of the Theory of Value―The Law of Value and Socialism― 1956|author=Tadayuki Tsushima|access-date=24 February 2015}}</ref>

===20th century===

[[Teruko Mizushima]] (1920-1996) was a Japanese housewife, author, inventor, social commentator, and activist credited with creating the world's first [[Timebanking|time bank]] in 1973.{{sfnp|Lietaer|2004|loc= 4}}{{sfnp|Lebra|2007|loc= 169}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2012|loc= 33}}

Mizushima was born in 1920 in [[Osaka]] to a merchant household.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 5}} She performed well in school and was given the opportunity to study overseas in the United States in 1939. Her stay was shortened from three years to one due to rising tensions between the US, Japan, and China. Mizushima opted to pursue a short-term diploma course in sewing.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 6}}

After returning home, she married. Her first daughter was born at the outbreak of the [[Pacific War]], and her husband was soon conscripted into the army.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 7}}

Mizushima's sewing skills proved invaluable to her family during and after the war. While the Japanese population was suffering immense material shortages,{{sfnp|Dower|1999|loc= 87-112}} Mizushima offered her sewing skills in exchange for fresh vegetables. It was during this time that she began to develop her ideas about economics and the relative value of labor.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 11, 12}}{{sfnp|Lebra|2007|loc= 169}}

In 1950, Mizushima submitted an essay to a newspaper contest as part of a national event titled “Women's Ideas for the Creation of a New Life.”{{sfnp|Mizushima|1984|loc= 191}} Her essay received the Newspaper Companies’ Prize''.''{{sfnp|Lietaer|2004|loc= 4}} While it has since been lost, the ideas in the essay attracted widespread press attention.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 20}}

Mizushima soon became a social commentator, with her views being aired on the radio, in the newspapers, and on television. She frequently appeared on the [[NHK]], the country's national broadcaster, and toured the country giving talks about her ideas.{{sfnp|Miller|2008a|loc= 25}}

In 1973 she started her group the Volunteer Labour Bank (later renamed the Volunteer Labour Network). By 1978, the bank had grown to include approximately 2,600 members. The membership included people of all ages, from teenagers to women in their seventies. The majority of members were housewives in their thirties and forties. Members were organized into over 160 local branches throughout the country, coordinated by the headquarters located on Mizushima’s estate.{{sfnp|Lebra|2007|loc= 169}}

By 1983, the network had over 3,800 members organized in 262 branches, including a branch in California.{{sfnp|Lietaer|2004|loc= 4}}

The political activist and philosopher [[Cornelius Castoriadis]], after criticizing the incoherency of capitalist, Leninist, and Trotskyist justifications of wage differentials in his 1949 [[Socialisme ou Barbarie]] text translated as “The Relations of Production in Russia” in the first volume of his ''Political and Social Writings'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castoriadis |first=Cornelius |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/cc_psw_v1.pdf |title=Political and Social Writings Volume 1 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |publication-date=1988}}</ref> responding to the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], advocated that workers “proclaim the abolition of work norms and instaurate full equality of wages and salaries” in his 1957 ''Socialisme ou Barbarie'' text translated as "On the Content of Socialism, II".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castoriadis |first=Cornelius |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/cc_psw_v2.pdf |title=Political and Social Writings Volume 2 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |year=1988 |pages=151}}</ref>  He elaborated further on this advocacy of an “absolute equality of wages and incomes” in his 1974 text, "Hierarchy of Salaries and Incomes",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castoriadis |first=Cornelius |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/cc_psw_v3.pdf |title=Political and Social Writings Volume 3 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |publication-date=1993 |pages=207-215}}</ref> and in the “Today” section of “Done and To Be Done” (1989).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castoriadis |first=Cornelius |url=https://www.notbored.org/cornelius-castoriadis-crossroads-5-done-and-to-be-done.pdf |title=Crossroads in the Labyrinth. Vol. 5. Done and To Be Done |pages=90-96}}</ref>

[[Edgar S. Cahn]] coined the term "Time Dollars" in ''Time Dollars: The New Currency That Enables Americans to Turn Their Hidden Resource-Time-Into Personal Security & Community Renewal'', a book co-authored with Jonathan Rowe in 1992.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cahn|first=Edgar|title=Time Dollars: The New Currency That Enables Americans to Turn Their Hidden Resource-Time-Into Personal Security & Community Renewal|year=1992|publisher=Rodale Press|location=Emmaus, Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-87857-985-3}}</ref>  He also went on to trademark the terms "TimeBank" and "Time Credit".<ref>{{cite web|title=TIME BANKS Trademark|url=http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/Pa02vdZ9S|work=TrademarkHound|publisher=US PatentOffice|access-date=2013-04-07|archive-date=2016-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702054916/http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/Pa02vdZ9S|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=TIME CREDITS Trademark|url=http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/OismJ6wRy|work=TrademarkHound|publisher=US Patent Office|access-date=2013-04-07|archive-date=2016-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702054546/http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/OismJ6wRy|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Timebanking is a community development tool and works by facilitating the exchange of skills and experience within a community. It aims to build the 'core economy' of family and community by valuing and rewarding the work done in it. The world's first timebank was started in Japan by [[Teruko Mizushima]] in 1973<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue17/miller.htm|title=Intersections:Teruko Mizushima: Pioneer Trader in Time as a Currency|website=intersections.anu.edu.au}}</ref> with the idea that participants could earn time credits which they could spend any time during their lives. She based her bank on the simple concept that each hour of time given as services to others could earn reciprocal hours of services for the giver at some stage in the future, particularly in old age when they might need it most. In the 1940s, Mizushima had already foreseen the emerging problems of an ageing society such as seen today. In the 1990s the movement took off in the US, with Dr Edgar Cahn pioneering it there, and in the United Kingdom, with Martin Simon from Timebanking UK and David Boyle, who brought in the London-based New Economics Foundation (Nef).

[[Paul Glover (activist)|Paul Glover]] created [[Ithaca Hours]] in 1991. Each HOUR was valued at one hour of basic labor or $10.00. Professionals were entitled to charge multiple HOURS per hour, but often reduced their rate in the spirit of equity. Millions of dollars' worth of HOURS were traded among thousands of residents and 500 businesses. Interest-free HOUR loans were made, and HOUR grants given to over 100 community organizations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://paulglover.org/hourintro.html|title=Introducing HOUR Money|website=paulglover.org}}</ref>

The first British time bank opened in 1998 in Stroud, and a national charity and membership organisation, Timebanking UK, started in 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Overview|url=https://timebanking.org/overview/|access-date=2021-03-03|website=Timebanking UK|date=9 March 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

===21st century===
According to Edgar S. Cahn, timebanking had its roots in a time when "money for social programs [had] dried up"<ref>{{harvp|Cahn|2004|p=xix}}</ref> and no dominant approach to [[social service]] in the U.S. was coming up with creative ways to solve the problem. He would later write that "Americans face at least three interlocking sets of problems: growing inequality in access by those at the bottom to the most basic goods and services; increasing social problems stemming from the need to rebuild family, neighborhood and community; and a growing disillusion with public programs designed to address these problems"<ref>{{harvp|Cahn|1999|p=499}}</ref> and that "the crisis in support for efforts to address social problems stems directly from the failure of ... piecemeal efforts to rebuild genuine community."<ref name="Cahn_1999_507">{{harvp|Cahn|1999|p=507}}</ref> In particular Cahn focused on the top-down attitude prevalent in social services. He believed that one of the major failings of many social service organizations was their unwillingness to enroll the help of those people they were trying to help.<ref>{{harvp|Cahn|1999|p=505}}</ref> He called this a deficit based approach to social service, where organizations view the people they were trying to help only in terms of their needs, as opposed to an asset based approach, which focuses on the contributions towards their communities that everyone can make.<ref>{{harvp|Cahn|2004|p=87}}</ref> He theorized that a system like timebanking could "[rebuild] the infrastructure of trust and caring that can strengthen families and communities."<ref name="Cahn_1999_507"/> He hoped that the system "would enable individuals and communities to become more self-sufficient, to insulate themselves from the vagaries of politics and to tap the capacity of individuals who were in effect being relegated to the scrap heap and dismissed as freeloaders."<ref name="Cahn_2004_5_6">{{harvp|Cahn|2004|pp=5–6}}</ref>

As a philosophy, timebanking, also known as Time Trade<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.awf.co.nz/|title=AWF: Blue Collar Recruitment Agency|website=www.awf.co.nz}}</ref> is founded upon five principles, known as TimeBanking's Core Values:<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.timebanks.org/five-core-values.htm|title= The Five Core Values|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070711035036/http://www.timebanks.org/five-core-values.htm|archive-date= 2007-07-11}}</ref>
* Everyone is an asset
* Some work is beyond a monetary price
* Reciprocity in helping
* Community (via social networks) is necessary
* A respect for all human beings

Ideally, timebanking builds community. TimeBank members sometimes refer to this as a return to simpler times when the community was there for its individuals. An interview at a timebank in the Gorbals neighbourhood of Glasgow revealed the following sentiment:

<blockquote>[the time bank] involves everybody coming together as a community ... the Gorbals has never—not for a long time—had a lot of community spirit. Way back, years ago, it had a lot of community spirit, but now you see that in some areas, people won't even go to the chap next door for some sugar ... that's what I think the project's doing, trying to bring that back, that community sense ...<ref>{{harvp|Seyfang|2004|p=66}}</ref></blockquote>

In 2017 Nimses offered a concept of a time-based currency Nim.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://futurism.com/what-will-the-currency-of-a-workless-cashless-future-be|title=What Will the Currency of a Workless, Cashless Future Be?|website=Futurism|date=30 August 2017 }}</ref> 1 nim = 1 minute of life. The concept was first adopted in [[Eastern Europe]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kyivpost.com/technology/ukrainian-tech-startup-turns-online-time-digital-cash.html|title = Ukrainian tech startup turns online time into digital cash - Jul. 21, 2017|date = 21 July 2017}}</ref>
The concept is based on the idea of universal [[basic income]]. Every person is an issuer of nims. For every minute of one's life,  1 nim is created, which can be spent or sent to another person, like money.