What is a Time Bank? What's wrong with the global economy, and how is it a pyramid scheme? What are the alternatives? How can we embrace community, local economies, and learn to meet more of our needs without always using dollars? What kind of economy can support our passions and encourage the meaningful, creative, & beautiful work our hearts desire? 20 slides, 15 seconds each. This was my first Ignite presentation, given at Ignite Montrose, Nov. 14, 2013.

1. Time Banking
and
Local
Economies

2. Question:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver
What is your calling? How would you
really love to impact the world?
…and what’s stopping you?

3. Well???
What’s Stopping You?

4. Why is it…?
…we don’t do the meaningful, creative, and
beautiful work our hearts desire to?
“Because you can’t
make any money doing that”
So instead we let “the
economy” determine
what is possible for how
we spend our lives.

5. “The Economy”
Debt-based money
+ Charging Interest (Usury)
= Pyramid scheme
By design, this creates a system where
too few dollars are always chasing
too much debt

6. “The Economy”
• By design, this creates a system where
too few dollars are always chasing
too much debt

7. “The Economy”
“Trickle Down Economics”
CEO
Looking down, only shitheads
Looking up, only assholes
• Scarcity is built in
• Inequality can
only increase
• The system
requires
exponential
growth
... or else it
breaks down

8. “The Economy”
Results like this
are built in… Not
unfortunate accidents,
but entirely
predictable.
• Bankruptcies
• Bubbles
• Ever-widening
wealth disparity

9. Clearly… This Isn’t
Working
“The availability of money
can't be permitted to define
the range of the possible.”

10. Clearly… This Isn’t
Working
What, then, should we do?
• Abandon money and go live in a cave?
• “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?”
• Or… create a better alternative?

11. It’s Okay, Though
• The global economy hasn’t really brought
genuine fulfillment or happiness, anyway.
…and it’s destroying the natural world.
• So as it dismantles, we have opportunities
to build something better.
• It’s time to turn toward each other, work
together, share, be creative & get busy!

12. A New Economy
Local economies based in meaningful work,
deeper connections with those around us,
more autonomy and calls for creativity.
•Do what we love,
•while supporting ourselves,
•and each other,
•and co-creating a better world.
And it’s already started…

13. Time Banking
.com
• Here in Montrose!
• Like an alternative local currency,
backed by real work, not by debt
• Direct exchange of items & services,
accounted in hours, not in $$$
• It’s a peer-to-peer network of exchange,
facilitated through a website.

14. How to TimeBank
.com
• Sign Up! <TimeBankoftheRockies.com>
• List your offers: skills, talents, items…
anything someone else might find useful
And Exchange:
• I help Joe fix his computer, he credits
1 hr to my account
• I spend 1 hr getting a massage from Lucy
• Lucy spends 1 hr for garden veggies
from Joe…. Etc. etc. etc.

15. Here in Montrose
.com
1 year, 113 Members, 1800 hrs exchanged
Popular Exchanges:
• Classes
• Garden / Yard
• Bodywork
• Computer Help
• Wellness Support
• Home Repair
• Food, Cooking
• Transportation
• Fitness & Outdoors • Art, Crafts
• Elder Care
• Child Care

16. Community
.com
• Access a valuable directory of local skills,
goods, people, and contact info.
• Develop relationships by giving
and receiving help
• Realize your talents are valued
• Meet your needs without always using $$$

17. Financial Freedom
What if you didn’t need $ for housing &
food?

18. Beyond Transaction
• Rather than using monetary transactions,
we can meet our basic needs through
mutually-beneficial relationships.

19. We Can Do It
• “We have what we need
if we use what we have”
- Edgar Cahn

20. In Summary
The monetary system is a pyramid
scheme of ever-expanding debt.
What if money were no object?
What would you do to improve your
community if you could?
What’s stopping you?

21. Time’s Up!
Jake Hanson
Co-Creator at Transition Lab, Montrose
801-448-6246 | jake@resilientjake.info
@resilientjake (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Quick bio:
2009: Graduated from University of Utah in wake of
financial collapse. Disillusionment. Lost faith in the system.
2009-2012: Activist in SLC, fighting The Man. Burnout.
2013: Decided creating alternatives was more effective than
resisting. Joined Transition Lab. Feel much better!