Time is currency: time banking fosters community and frugality through reciprocity

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Content TIME IS CURRENCY: TIME BANKING FOSTERS COMMUNITY AND FRUGALITY DURING RECESSION by Michelle Marie Lanz ____________________________________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORONIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS (PRINT JOURNALISM) December 2009 Copyright 2009 Michelle Marie Lanz ii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the generosity of the Echo Park Time Bank, the support of my friends and family and the patient and critical eye of my graduate committee. First I would like to thank my committee chair and mentor Prof. Sandy Tolan for his advice, support and for challenging me to improve my writing. Thanks to Profs. Felix Gutierrez and Ann Majchrzak for their thoughtful edits and for seeing this project through to the end. Their support gave me the confidence to complete such a long and intensive piece of journalism. I would also like to thank my parents for their support in my graduate endeavor and my friends for understanding when I had to spend my weekends locked in the library. Thanks to Autumn Rooney and Lisa Gerstein of the Echo Park Time Bank for welcoming me into their group and into their homes. Their unmitigated access allowed me to get to the heart of the time banking concept and opened my mind as to what is possible when people work together for a greater good. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………..……ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….….iv Time Is Currency: Time Banking Fosters Community and Frugality Through Reciprocity……………………………………………………………………………..1 Side Bar: Time Bank vs. Barter: What’s the Difference?……....……………….……20 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….…….23 iv Abstract Residents of cities like Los Angeles and New York might never meet one of their neighbors, let alone their whole neighborhood. But as the recession continues and people find it harder to afford necessities, they’re turning to a 20-year-old service-trading concept called time banking in order to save money and build stronger communities. One such time bank has formed in the hills of Echo Park, Calif. bringing 30 former strangers together to form the Echo Park Time Bank collective. Unlike traditional bartering where two parties have to negotiate the value of their goods, the time bank rewards good or services with hypothetical “time dollars,” stored in an online profile. Businesses are also using a bartering method to save money on office equipment, services and employee incentives. Bartering and time banking are useful alternatives for families of businesses struggling in an unsteady economy. 1 Time Is Currency: Time Banking Fosters Community and Frugality Through Reciprocity Kindred Gottlieb couldn’t resist buying the used wedding dress she found stuffed amongst the discarded, candy-colored muumuus at a Seattle thrift store five years ago. Neither engaged nor in a steady relationship, the then-30-year-old fell in love with its intricate lace, hand-sewn beading and, more importantly, its $40 price tag. It was out of fashion by modern standards, with long frilly sleeves and Reagan-era shoulder pads, but it looked brand new, and she liked the idea of giving it one more chance to walk down the aisle. As a sculptor living on an artist’s salary, Gottlieb has always been someone with a keen eye for a bargain. So in 2008 when her boyfriend Antony Gutierrez proposed, she set out to find someone who could alter the dress, but not her bank account. “I must have tried four or five places, and they were all asking for hundreds of dollars,” she recalls. “As soon as you say the word ‘wedding’ everything gets a lot more expensive.” Coincidentally, Gottlieb had joined the newly minted Echo Park Time Bank and after browsing through the online profiles, found a costume designer named Carrie Grace who offered to fix the dress for free. A non-monetary exchange like this seems unlikely, but it’s not a dream and it isn’t happening in some far off utopia—it may exist in your own neighborhood. 2 It’s a 20-year-old service-exchanging program called time banking that is steadily gaining popularity in large U.S. cities like Los Angeles as the recession continues to diminish the worth of the dollar. But free work? Seems unlikely Los Angeles, where communities are fragmented and many people are surrounded by strangers and far from the familiarity of their hometowns. And why would someone offer his or her valuable time for no pay? Time bank members do, because there is something in it for them, it just isn’t made of green paper. Here’s how it works: A community time bank in its simplest form is like a bartering system, except trades are done with a centralized “bank” instead of directly with an individual. Members use an online-based system that mimics a social networking platform with profiles and contact information for each person in the time bank. These online profiles allow people to list services they offer or request. Anything from rides to the airport and cooking lessons to babysitting and language tutoring are on the list. Users can search for a service they need, or can find people who might need their help. By offering their own services to other members, they bolster their “time bank” accounts with the hypothetical currency called “time dollars.” They can then spend these dollars on something in the time bank, all they have to do is browse the database and contact the person offering the service. There are no set prices for services and no printed money. The time bank system 3 is different than a monetary system in that the cost of every service is of equal value. A general rule is that one hour of work is equivalent to one time dollar, no matter what the service. Members can freely negotiate their exchanges and everything is tracked and monitored via an online community Web site. There are also no rules as to what someone can offer. Just because someone makes a living as a lawyer does not mean he or she has to offer law services at the bank. At its best the process is cyclical. Gottlieb transferred ten time dollars into Grace’s online profile for the wedding dress alteration. Grace, who works odd hours as a commercial wardrobe designer, then spent seven of the dollars to pay time bank member Howie Cohen to give her cat an insulin shot at 5 o'clock every day for a week. Cohen then used his “time dollars,” to have Grace put a new lining in his wife’s jacket. Thus the "dollars" for an altered wedding dress ultimately revamped Tawny Cohen’s favorite blazer. Members meet and greet monthly at potluck events which function as trust- building meetings, as well as forums to discuss needs face-to-face and build a sense of community. “I really want to get people out of this cyberspace rut I feel we’re all in,” says EPTB founder Autumn Rooney. As main organizer of the collective, she reviews all applications and must meet with potential time bankers. “The goal is also to keep the membership at a manageable size and hyper-local, so people will be able to meet and maybe become real friends.” 4 Echo Park Time Bank members pay a $20 annual fee to cover the costs associated with running the bank, handled almost entirely by Rooney and Lisa Gerstein, owner of Flounce Vintage on Echo Park Boulevard. The pair of 30-somethings devotes much of their free time to maintaining the database, organizing events and working on growing their fledgling bank. For Rooney and Gerstein, the time bank offers something more than just a way to save money; it also builds and fosters a sense of community, regardless of race, culture or class. Those mutual benefits were exactly what Time Bank founder Edgar Cahn envisioned when he first dreamed up the idea of a time bank more than 20 years ago. The Rebirth of Father Time It was 1980. Cahn awoke in a Washington D.C. hospital with a heavy ache in his chest. As the bleeps of the EKG machine brought consciousness back into his cloudy mind, he peeled his eyes open and slowly began to put the pieces back together. He was a 46-year-old non-profit lawyer, Ronald Reagan was president and his heart was literally broken. A near-fatal heart attack had left 60 percent of his vital organ damaged and scarred indefinitely. Though fortunate enough to receive prompt care, the doctors were still unsure whether he would recover completely. “I remember lying there, feeling as though my heart had failed me. I began to 5 wonder how I could regain trust in my own body,” Cahn remembers. The co-founder of National Legal Services, a non-profit law group that counsels low-income families, was now at the mercy of the nurses and machines incessantly monitoring his vulnerable heart. “I didn't like feeling useless, like my condition was a charity wound. I wondered how anyone could ever again trust me with a task that makes a difference,” he recalls with a tremor in his usually confident voice. Cahn was not used to being the one in need of help. A tall, slender man who almost never leaves the house without a suit and tie, Cahn and his late wife Jean had been advocates for the disenfranchised. Educated at Yale Law School, he had been a Fulbright scholar, a speechwriter for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, an author, a professor and the co-founder of Antioch Law School, the only public law school in Washington D.C. But the notches on an impressive resume meant nothing to a man trying to live with a dying heart. A simple verbal exchange snapped him out of a physical and fatalistic rut that would have permanently derailed most people. “Is there some way I can help you?” he remembers asking the nurse that has been so kind during his recovery. It was a question he had asked so many people before, but it meant something different now that he was the one on the receiving end of help. “Well, how about you tell me what it's like to have a heart attack, how does it make you feel?” asked his nurse, admitting that it was a question she wanted to ask for 6 quite some time. He could help her understand how it felt physically, psychologically and emotionally to have a heart attack. This insight might help her become a better nurse and caregiver. Something clicked. Though the heart attack had weakened his heart and spirit, his feelings of helplessness began to subside. Despite being a Frankenstein’s monster of tubes and beeping machines, he had been able to offer something of value to someone else. And it felt good. “There is a basic human need to feel like your existence matters,” says Cahn. “That it matters to others and that you can make a difference in their lives.” Cahn’s epiphany was simple, but poignant. After years of giving and not receiving, he was now able to experience an act of charity from the side of the receiver. It was then that he realized the necessity of reciprocation in acts of charity. Empowered beyond his physical body, he wondered whether the clients he had volunteered to help throughout the years had felt the same way. Did he actually make his clients feel worthless by not empowering them to offer something in return for his pro bono services? Would his clients feel the same empowerment he now felt by reciprocating help? How do you create a currency outside the established monetary system? Cahn was determined to find out. 7 In Theory and Practice The 1980s were a trying time for many Americans with the onset of a deep recession and President Ronald Reagan’s plan for budget cuts to social services and welfare. By December 1982 the unemployment rate had reached nearly 11 percent, which not far from the March 2009 rate of 8.5 percent (economists like Paul Krugman predicted the rate will most likely reach 10 percent this year.) The Reagan recession was understood as the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, only surpassed by the current state of the economy. The people who suffered the most from Reagan’s cuts were low-income families and minorities as his stimulus package effectively drew an even wider gap between the rich and poor. His tax cuts benefited people who made six figure incomes and the budget cuts hit services meant to help lower income families relying on programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Reagan’s approval rating plunged to a low of 35 percent in 1983, but the country was on the road to recovery by mid-decade. “I thought, this is crazy, we've got social problems backed up and why isn't there a way we can put people, problems and needs together?” asked Cahn slowly in his soft, thoughtful but, determined voice. “So I started to search for a way to make this concept a reality.” After six years of recovery and a return to his work as a non-profit lawyer after, Cahn drafted a theoretical concept for time banking while on fellowship at the London 8 School of Economics. When he returned to the U.S. and began to put the concept into practice and coined ‘time banking,’ ‘time dollars,’ and founded the Time Dollar Institute in 1987. At its heart, Cahn’s theory is based on the principle of strengthening the ‘core economy,’ which he says has been damaged by emphasis on a money-based economy. Economist Neva Goodwin was the first to coin the term, referring to the invisible non- monetary market home, family, neighborhood and community. It’s not something economists record as part of the GDP or on balance sheets, and thus has been understood to not hold any monetary value. “It doesn't really do much of economic significance,” said Cahn sarcastically. “It just raises children, keeps families strong, keeps neighborhoods safe, takes care of the elderly, holds officials accountable, makes democracy work and fights for justice, but nothing of importance, you understand.” Cahn put his theory to practice by pairing senior citizens with juvenile delinquents to forge time banks in convalescent homes. He developed the Time Dollar Youth Court in Washington, D.C. to negotiate a way for non-violent, troubled youth to complete community service sentences doing something of personal value to someone else. The first-time offenders are sentenced by a jury of their peers—kids around their own age from public housing complexes, shelters or halfway houses form the jury pool. The peer- jurors earn time dollars for attending jury duty and the offender is judged by a jury of his 9 or her peers instead of an authority figure that might not come from a sympathetic background. A juvenile may be sentenced to 40 hours of community service in a senior citizen center. The youth will then work off his or her sentences by providing companionship to lonely seniors. This was one of the earliest practices of matching needs of people who would never meet under normal circumstances. Still in use today, the method has been a court-authorized system for first-time offenders since 1996. The hours the youth spend providing a service usually provided by friends or family might be unpaid, but their worth of their time is measurable. For example, a 2007 study by the Generations Project and MetLife Insurance estimates that informal elder care is the greatest source of long-term care spending in the U.S. The unpaid hours family or friends usually spend on caring for the elderly is estimated at $102.7 billion each year Strong familial and community ties that once supported this economy are no longer the norm with the development of suburbs, highways and decentralized cities. Cahn recognized that the current system doesn’t effectively tap into the productivity and importance of family and community. Time banks were developed to ensure that the things society really needs, but which are normally unpaid, are never crowded out by the money economy. Today Washington D.C.-based Time Banks USA is the centralized force behind a modern time banking system focused on strengthening small communities through 10 co-production rather than matching needs of people perhaps not in close proximity. The company acts as a support hub for the international network of time banks by allowing for communication and offering consulting support for fledgling banks. 11 In the Most Unlikely of Places The time bank network spans 32 countries, six continents and 80 communities in the U.S. The Echo Park branch was the first of its kind in L.A. But new banks are springing up in other pockets of the spread-out city from as far west as Santa Monica to Pasadena and the Valley. Lisa Gerstein first heard about time banking while driving home from running errands one day in May 2008. A radio story about a bartering group in Spain called the Barcelona Time Bank, came on and had her glued to the seat of her Toyota Corolla. Though she had returned home before the end of the story, she couldn’t help but sit in her car until it was over. “I thought the idea was so cool, but that there was no way a concept based purely on trust would work in the U.S., let alone Los Angeles,” said Gerstein one early morning as she opened her Echo Park vintage clothing store. The tiny room has a dusty, stale atmosphere contrasted by the brightly colored garments from decades long past. “I was amazed to discover it was actually invented in Washington, D.C. After that I changed my mind and thought perhaps it could work here.” A self-proclaimed skeptic, Gerstein mentioned the idea to Rooney and asked if she would be interested in starting a time bank. By the next day, Rooney--the resident troubleshooter and computer whiz--had researched the concept and signed them up for a 12 3-month trial of the time banking software created by Time Banks USA, the Washington, D.C.-based central office. The Echo Park Time bank was officially in business, but would it actually work in Los Angeles? After all, L.A. is a broadly multi-cultural city where tight-knit communities exist in small pockets and are often forged by a specific culture or ethnicity. There’s Koreatown, Little Ethiopia and Historic Filipinotown, but in many other areas of the city exist clusters of people not connected by familial or cultural ties. Add to that L.A.’s obsession with the automobile and communication gadgets, and you have a recipe for disconnectedness; walking down the street you’re as likely to pass by someone on a cell phone as not. So what makes Echo Park different? Many of the principles of time banking— community involvement, strong familial ties, and non-monetary exchanges—had already been established among the longstanding and tight knit Latino community. But the past decade has seen an influx of white and multi-ethnic bohemian couples as well as trendy coffee shops and restaurants. Though Latino families still largely populate the community, many moved elsewhere as cost of living in the area began to soar. LA Weekly reported in June 2008 that just 15 years ago, minorities made up 80 percent of the population of Echo Park. Today that number is down to 60 percent mainly due to the influx of young couples, the 13 erection of condos and gentrification. Echo Park has changed so much that it in 2008, it was voted as the one of the top 10 greatest neighborhoods in the United States by the American Planning Association. That's a surprising accolade given that just over decade prior the area was riddled with gang violence. These new residents came from outside the community and essentially made up a neighborhood of strangers, not connected by the traditional means of family or culture. Generally, gentrification is thought of as a negative experience, where wealthier people move in and displace the lower income original population. “Earlier residents may feel embattled, ignored, and excluded from their own communities,” says Benjamin Grant, a San Francisco-area urban designer and city planner. “New arrivals are often mystified by accusations that their efforts to improve local conditions are perceived as hostile or even racist.” This new need for connectivity along with the continuing decline in the economy have made Echo Park into a perfect case study of whether time banking can foster a new kind of community, which excludes no one. “People generally don't trust each other here,” said Gerstein. This wariness is not unfounded; changing an entrenched mindset of mistrust doesn’t happen overnight and is why membership has been increased gradually. “It takes time and effort to meet people and grow the trust that is essential to time banking.” But Rooney and Gerstein also didn't advertise or publicize the bank's existence, wanting it to grow organically from a 14 strong base of friends and mutual acquaintances. But first they had to convince their initial members the core concept of time banking: That it is better to both give and receive. It’s a problem facing time banks throughout the globe. A 2004 study of a more established U.K time bank found that the number one difficulty is teaching members to differentiate between time banking and volunteering. The study notes that members like to give time, but they are reluctant to ask for help themselves, because many of the transactions mimic favors. The Echo Park Time Bank suffers from the same weakness, but Rooney is trying to encourage trade by giving out free time dollars for joining as an incentive to try it out. “What we have found is that people are really good at offering services and helping, but not so good at asking for help,” said Rooney, who says that all new members get five bonus time dollars upon registration. “But once you start exchanging, it gets easier because you realize the benefits of the system and those total strangers aren't strangers anymore.” Another roadblock for the time bank is that once people become friends, they often offer to do things for free outside the debits and credits of the bank. In general, people offer to do favors for their friends, such as rides to the airport or help with computers. Conversely, many people won’t ask for help, not wanting to burden a friend or loved one. If someone needs a ride home from the airport, he or she might opt to pay 15 for a cab instead of asking a friend or family member. Time banks make these favors we take for granted into mutually beneficial, but non-monetary exchanges. But it takes practice to teach people that this reciprocation is necessary to the survival of a time bank. A question that often arises is the safety of a system full of strangers. Ana Miyares of the Miami Time Bank recalls a time she had to ban someone from the bank. “After a tip, I did a background check on this person and found out that he was a registered sex offender,” said Miyares, a gravel-voiced Cuban immigrant. “He was trying to offer tutoring services for children … I told him we weren’t interested in having him as a member and that was that.” Having spent the last 21 years of her life as a time bank consultant, Miyares insists that this was the only major problem she had encountered during her tenure. Rooney and Gerstein don’t have the time or money to perform full background checks, but require a list of references, job history and residency information, which help her get a feel for each applicant. Many people are invited into the collective through word of mouth, but Rooney checks all references and uses social networking sites to do further research on each member. As with any organization there are problems that arise and struggles to overcome, but Rooney insists that the success stories outweigh any difficulties. Carrie Grace was one of the first, but is also one of the most active members of the group. An animal lover with multiple pets, her cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes and would need a series 16 of shots throughout the day. While this new set of responsibilities seems petty, Grace’s work schedule has her out of the house for 12 to 14 hours a day. She was unsure of how she would be able to take care of her pet's new special needs. “I have such a complex about asking my friends to take care of my cats … I feel guilty asking them,” said Grace, as she scooped a slice of vegan, non-dairy casserole onto her paper plate during one of the group’s monthly potlucks. “The time bank released me from that guilt.” Grace joined back during the first few months of the group’s existence when membership was restricted to friends, acquaintances or neighbors in the vicinity surrounding Echo Park-proper. There were 28 members by July 2008, but that all changed when the Los Angeles Times ran a story about the group that same month. From there the membership inquiries came rushing in, faster than Rooney or Gerstein could manage. Membership quickly doubled and hundreds of inquiries were sent into Rooney’s inbox. “We would get a lot of people that would join, but then never go through with their profiles,” said Rooney. “We get the sense that a lot of people are into the idea, but don’t end up committing to being an active member. It takes a mindset change to really embrace the idea.” To weed out those not serious about participating, Rooney decided to make it mandatory that new members come to the monthly meeting before becoming an official time bank participant. 17 At first Rooney hosted the potlucks in the peaceful backyard of her serene, cabin-like home, but there are far too many people now to sustain the intimacy of the first few months. Now she and Gerstein have to find larger venues to accommodate a growing list of members—free of charge. Luckily, with 91 registered members there is always someone who knows someone with a large space to offer. Tonight, they meet in an old, barn-like event hall at the Barlow Respiratory Hospital adjacent to Dodger Stadium near downtown Los Angeles. Photos of the hospital’s 100-year history adorn the walls and a small disco ball hangs from the ceiling, strangely out of place. Outside and away from the relative peace of the meeting room, a traffic jam of cars waits impatiently to enter the Stadium gates. “Sorry I’m late,” a new member says as she strolls in 30 minutes past the meeting time; these meetings are casual affairs, and apologies for tardiness aren't entirely necessary. Soon after, three more people come in, clutching their potluck items in one hand and introducing themselves and offering handshakes with the other. A bare wood table is adorned with fresh guacamole, vegan casserole, sliced fruit, vegetables and a decadent chocolate cake that beckons to be devoured. Rooney believes that the time bank has been manageable because membership is limited to less than 100 people and within a set of specific zip codes. Residents as far west as Los Feliz to downtown Los Angeles are within the qualifying range. These limitations ensure that the bank is self-sustaining and accomplishes Cahn’s goal of 18 strengthening community through reciprocity. “We've gotten applications from people in Santa Monica and as far as the Valley or the South Bay, but it becomes too inconvenient if we allow people outside the area,” said Rooney. “Plus keeping it local allows people that might be close neighbors to finally meet and become friends.” As people fill their plates and return to the circle of seats, Rooney begins the meeting with an update: introducing new members, discussing fundraising ideas and future plans to start a food bank. Gottlieb’s 1-year-old daughter Gigi runs circles around the crowd, always under the watchful eye of her mother. A pregnant woman raises her hand and asks if anyone wants to pick the guava fruit off of her fruit tree. The smell emanating from the fallen fruit is making her even more nauseous than she already is, she explains. Another woman emphatically responds that she can use the guavas to make jam for the next potluck. In the Echo Park Time Bank, when one person has a need and another person has a skill and a free hour, the result is a mutual benefit Time Bank founder Edgar Cahn envisioned years ago. Today Cahn spends his days as a professor at the David A. Clarke School of Law in Washington D.C., while continuing to spread his concept to people throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is now a vibrant 75, still impeccably groomed and no more heart problems to date, he shows no signs of slowing down and neither does time banking. 19 Cahn hopes the ease of the Web can help people start their own banks and bring communities back together. “I remember being in San Antonio and someone said, ‘Oh I get it, if you had cornflakes and I had milk we had breakfast, but it’s not like that anymore,” said Cahn. “What does it mean to try and recreate that kind of connectivity? Because that is the kind of operating system that hopefully motivates us all to make the kind of world that we want to leave behind. What it comes down to is that everyone has something to give.” 20 Side Bar: Time Bank vs. Barter: What’s the Difference? The last era of widespread bartering in America was during the Great Depression in the 1930s, when millions of people couldn't afford basic necessities. According to oral records of Depression era survivors, people were creative in their exchanges: farmers would barter corn or potatoes in exchange for things like medical care or blacksmith work. It is no secret that alternative forms of currency and bartering have been historically proven to increase in popularity when the economy is in a downturn, as people turn to more creative ways to save a buck than clipping coupons. When the unemployment rate is low and the majority of people can meet their needs through a monetary system, using an alternative to currency seems absurd. After all, it’s much easier to get what you want if you just buy it. But what if money is tight or one’s financial future isn’t as solid as it once was? What if the country is in “the worst Recession since the Great Depression”? Even the most skeptic people start being open-minded about holding onto their cash via unorthodox methods of trade. "Local barter systems and local currencies flourish when a country is managing its affairs inappropriately," says economist Hazel Henderson. The faltering economy coupled with the Internet allows for a new generation of barterers and penny pinchers. A stroll through the “barter” ads on Craigslist is a good indicator of whether people are looking to the centuries-old method. Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best, 21 said in a press release that the site has seen a 100 percent increase in barter ads in 2009. In fact, the use of bartering never really ceases even during times of prosperity—it just simply loses popularity. With the help of the Internet, many businesses use bartering as a way to save money on expensive equipment like copiers or computers or for employee incentives like vacations. Perry Constantinides is the founder and president of Maryland-based Barter Systems Inc., a company that manages bartering transactions between businesses. He explains that there has been an upswing in interest for his company in the past three years, but that economic downturn still affects the business of bartering. "One of our best years was 2006, where we had double digit increases and good cash flow, but in the next two years we hit the mires with the real estate problem,” said Constantinides. “We have managed to beat 2006 this year and last year, but we have beat in volume and not collections.” That means the company has had more people join the network wanting to barter, but they have not actively traded due to the various fees that are part of doing the exchange. The way it works is comparable to the time bank method. Companies pay yearly dues and exchange their services to the online database of a central managing company. This managed database keeps track of credits, debits and through an administrator, acts to broker trade between users. Say a florist provides $5,000 of flowers with a company. That $5,000 credit will be added to their account so they can then use it to get something 22 they need from another company in the group. The credit transfers over and the parties never exchange money With the use of the central online component, the problems associated with traditional bartering disappear. In the old days, the company that wanted the flowers would have to have something the floral company wanted; otherwise the trade would not work. The old method calls for each party to satisfy the need of the other. Like the online bartering system for businesses, the time bank also eliminates the conflict and difficulty that can arise with bartering the conventional way. But the most important difference between the two methods of trade is the tax implications associated with bartering. From the eyes of the U.S. government, when you barter something you are making a transaction that qualifies as income. In fact bartering is recognized as equivalent to cash income according to the IRS—you can deduct bartered goods from taxes if they’re related to your business. The fair market value of bartered products and services has to be included in income during the tax year it is received. Bartering allows companies to save money on equipment, but they still have to pay taxes on both the company’s fees and taxes proportionate to the value of the transaction. 23 Bibliography American Planning Association. “Great Places in America: Neighborhoods” <http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2008/echopark.htm> Bias, Javier. “World Bank Chief Economist: World Faces ‘Worst Recession Since The Great Depression,’” Financial Times, 9 Dec. 2008. Bloomkatz, Ari. “Echo Park neighborhood shaken by shootings,” Los Angeles Times. 2 March 2009. Cahn, Dr. Edgar. In-person interview. March 2009. Constantinides, Perry. Personal phone interview. 10 Nov. 2008. Futch, David. “Echo Parks gentrification woes,” L.A. Weekly. 25 June 2008. Generation Project. “A Business Issue: Working Caregivers and Longterm Care.” <http://thegenerationsproject.org/> Gerstein, Lisa. In-person interviews. Sept 2008-March 2009 Grace, Carrie. In-person interview. 12 Oct. 2009. Henderson, Hazel. Personal phone interview. March 2009. Higgins, Andrew. “Twilight Economy: Lacking Money to Pay, Russian Firms Survive on Deft Baryer System,” Wall St. Journal. 27 August 1998. MacTavish-Best, Susan. Press release for Craigslist. Miyares, Ana. Personal phone interview. 2 Oct. 2008. Newsmax wire. “Krugman: 10 percent unemployment,” Money News. 8 Dec 2008 Rooney, Autumn. In-person interviews. Sept 2008-March 2009 Schmidt, Walter. “Barter Economics,” <http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_12.html> 24 Seyfang, Gill. “Time banks: Rewarding community self-help in the inner city,” Community Development Journal. Oxford University Press, 2004: Pgs. 62-71. Simerman, John. “More people turn to bartering during economic downturn,” Contra Costa Times. 23 March 2007. The Presidents: Ronald Reagan,” Public Broadcasting System, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/40_reagan/reagan_domestic.html> Vesilind, Emily. “Time bank takes root in Echo Park,” Los Angeles Times. 27 July 2008.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Residents of cities like Los Angeles and New York might never meet one of their neighbors, let alone their whole neighborhood. But as the recession continues and people find it harder to afford necessities, they’re turning to a 20-year-old service-trading concept called time banking in order to save money and build stronger communities. One such time bank has formed in the hills of Echo Park, Calif. bringing 30 former strangers together to form the Echo Park Time Bank collective. Unlike traditional bartering where two parties have to negotiate the value of their goods, the time bank rewards good or services with hypothetical “time dollars,” stored in an online profile. Businesses are also using a bartering method to save money on office equipment, services and employee incentives. Bartering and time banking are useful alternatives for families of businesses struggling in an unsteady economy.

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The economy crunch: a multimedia website devoted to the economy and what we eat

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Creator Lanz, Michelle Marie (author)

Core Title Time is currency: time banking fosters community and frugality through reciprocity

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Print Journalism)

Publication Date 11/03/2009

Defense Date 05/20/2009

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag alternative currency,barter,Business,Community,Echo Park,Economy,Edgar Cahn,frugality,Los Angeles,neighborhood,OAI-PMH Harvest,recession,reciprocity,services,social networking,time bank,trade

Place Name California (states), Los Angeles (city or populated place)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tolan, Sandy (committee chair), Gutierrez, Felix Frank (committee member), Majchrzak, Ann (committee member)

Creator Email lanz@usc.edu,michellemlanz@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2711

Unique identifier UC1504231

Identifier etd-Lanz-2912 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-270282 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2711 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Lanz-2912.pdf

Dmrecord 270282

Document Type Thesis

Rights Lanz, Michelle Marie

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu