From bn301@freenet.carleton.ca Thu Jul 24 00:41:52 1997 Received: from freenet1.carleton.ca (root@freenet1.carleton.ca [134.117.136.20]) by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id AAA10349 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:40:13 -0400 (EDT) Received: from freenet5.carleton.ca.carleton.ca (bn301@freenet5.carleton.ca [134.117.136.25]) by freenet1.carleton.ca (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id AAA02424 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:42:13 -0400 (EDT) From: "C.D. Murray" Received: (bn301@localhost) by freenet5.carleton.ca.carleton.ca (8.8.5/NCF-Sun-Client) id AAA05224; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:42:10 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:42:10 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199707240442.AAA05224@freenet5.carleton.ca.carleton.ca> X-URL: http://www.ams.queensu.ca/OPIRG/money.htm To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca Subject: money.htm Status: OR Kingston Hours Frequently Asked Questions I've been hearing a lot about Kingston Hours recently. What are they? Kingston Hours are a new currency for the Kingston community, designed to help people exchange their skills and labour with one another. Who are they for? Everyone! Kingston has no shortage of people with skills and services to offer, who could be doing necessary, productive work except there is a lack of Canadian currency in the local economy. Kingston Hours provide a way for people to support themselves even when money is scarce. Kingston Hours will produce wealth for those who need it most. Why do we need it? Kingston Hours will expand the local economy by creating new spending power, even for people without a lot of Canadian currency. Kingston Hours will facilitate barter, creating new wealth for the community. They will also create a thriving local economy that is less reliant on traditional government money. This will help to isulate Kingston from the negative effects of government spending cuts and tight-money policies. Kingston Hours will also help local businesses, will build community, and will give Kingston more control over its economy. How does it work? The concept behind Kingston Hours is simple. It's a barter system with a monetary base. First, interested people sign up to use the currency. In signing up they agree to respect the value of the money and they receive some Hours in return for backing the currency; they can begin trading right away! Everyone who signs up may list service and goods they are seeking or are willing to offer in exchange for Hours. These listings will appear in a newspaper called "Focus on Kingston Hours", which will be distributed regularly all over Kingston. So, for example, say Helen, an unemployed carpenter, sees in the Focus on Kingston Hours paper that Ted wants his porch fixed. Helen then calls Ted, and after talking they decide that it will probably take four hours of work. They might then agree on a price of two Kingston Hours and thirty dollars. Then Helen might spend her Hours to buy food from Peter, a local organic farmer, who could use them to pay Cathy to help on the farm, who might use them to help pay for boots at a local store that accepts Hours ... As long as the Hours circulate, they create wealth in the local economy. Why are they called 'Hours'? Each Kingston Hours is taken to represent the value of one Hour of work. If someone spends one hour fixing the tap in your bathroom, that work would be worth one Kingston Hour. As we say, an hour is an Hour is an hour. The idea is flexible: for example a dentist could feel comfortable charging four Hours for one hour of work, because she would also have to pay a receptionist, an assistant, and some overhead costs. The value of each Kingston Hours has been set at twlve dollars, in order to represent a livable hourly wage. Where do Hours come from? Hours are created by the people who use them. The Kingston Hour's value is not backed by Gold or a national debt. Their value is created and backed by real people, real skills, real tools and work. The paper currency represents the labour and talent of community members. Has this ever been done before? Yes. Kingston Hours currency is modelled on the highly successful [1]"Ithaca Hours" currency in Ithaca, NY. It works just as the comic below describes. In fact, it has been so successful that some people in Ithaca don't use American money at all; they can use Ithaca Hours for food, clothing, rent, dentistry, legal advice, moveis, home repairs, carpentry, computer training and countless other services and goods. In Ithaca, they publish a newspaper called "ITHACA MONEY" to advertise the skills of people in the community. In Halifax residents have been trading with Maritime Hours for fours years now, and five or six other community projects exist within Canada. Over forty community corruencies have been launched in the U.S. in the past five years, including projects in Kansas City, INdianapolis, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Santa Fe. It sounds too good to be legal. Is it? It's just as legal as Canadian Tire money, cheques or barter. It's as legal as helping a friend with her painting in return for some of her homegrown tomatoes. What about taxes? Kingston Hours will have to be treated like Canadian currency for tax purposes. So, if I earn one Hour for shovelling snow, I would have to declare the value of one Hour ($12) as income and pay tax accordingly. Who's in charge? Who controls this new money? Canadian monetary policy is set by the Bank of Canada, which is not always sensitive to Kingston's needs. Kingston Hour policy will be decided by the Kingston community. Meetings will be held every month, and anyone who has signed up to use the currency is invited to attent and is entitled to vote on policy. An administration committee will be elected to make the day-to-day decision about the currency. Decisions about grants and loans of Hours and about significant changes to policy will be discussed and ratified by vote. The first meeting will be held in October. How can people sign up? To get more information, or to sign up to use Kingston Hours, call the OPIRG-Kingston office at 549-0066. At this point, we will simply be taking down names and phone numbers of people who would like to participate. Currency will be issued in November of 1996. At this time, everyone who has signed up will receive two free Hours, and they will be able to list services and goods they are seeking or are able to offer. The listings will appear in a newspaper called "Focus on Kingston Hours" that will be available for free in stores all over Kingston and the surrounding area. The paper will also report the decisions made at the monthly meetings, will inform the community about upcoming meetings that everyone is invited to attend and will have articles about local currencies, the local economy and how Kingston Hours are helping. FOR MORE INFORMATION If you would like more information, call the OPIRG-Kingston office at 549-0066 or drop by the OPIRG office in the Earth Centre, in the lower level of the John Deutsch University Centre (the JDUC), Queen's Campus, at the corner of Union and University. The office is open 10-4 Monday to Friday. We have lots of information about other alternative currency projects. We also have free information packages that discuss Ithaca Hours, Halifax's local currency and Kingston Hours in more detail. We have a special information package for local businesses about how Kingston Hours can help them. Call us or drop by our office for more information. Back to [2]OPIRG HomePage. This homepage is maintained by [3]Robert Beattie. For more information [4]email us, call us at 549-0066 or drop by our office. OPIRG is located in the Earth Centre on the Lower Level of the JDUC (University and Union). Our office and resource centre are open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. References 1. http://www.publiccom.com/web/ithacahour/ 2. http://www.ams.queensu.ca/OPIRG/index.htm 3. mailto:3rkb1@qlink.queensu.ca 4. mailto:OPIRG@www.ams.queensu.ca