TURMEL: Facebook AceBucks as my global LETS time-trading currency
KingofthePaupers
do my online LETS time-trading transactions! Here's the letter I
wrote to their developers:
Jct: I am the only Professor of Banking Systems Engineering on
the planet, consulting engineer and financier of the first LETS
(Local Employment-Trading Software, and made the speech in 2000
resulting in U.N. Millennium Declaration UNILETS Resolution C6 to
governments for an interest-free time-based currency to
restructure the global financial architecture.
I want to give you an A+ on your AceBucks LETS (Local Employment-
Trading System) because it should perform far better than
previous LETS.
I'm ashamed to say I was slow in checking it out but since I
belong to Facebook, I've decided to use it for my real world
transactions.
The only thing I have to decide before inviting my friends around
the world to join the transaction network John "The Engineer" has
chosen is how many Acebucks to a volunteer hour of labor.
In Ithaca US, 1 Hour = $10. In Canada, 1 Hour=$12, in UK 6
Greenpounds, in Germany 20 Greenmarks, in France an hour is worth
60 Greenfrancs, but between nations, we account in time. In 1999,
I paid for 39/40 nights in Europe with an IOU for a night back in
Canada worth 5 Hours.
I've used a rudimentary personal LETS at
http://johnturmel.com/unilets.htm to give you an idea of how
little really needs to be done when you've having a global
impact.
Once I announce the number of AceBucks I'll be charging per
volunteer hour of my accordion concerts, how many Acebucks I'll
take for a night's accommodations Brantford and 100 other
Canadian LETS towns, thousands around the world, I'll be setting
the AceBucks to the already existing Time Standard of Money,
Hours.
Do you have any recommendations on how many Acebucks I should
charge as a 5-hour IOU for a night in Canada? I'd love it to be
the actual US dollar value making it a truly efficient global
reach LETS.
JCT: Ah, darn, they don't get an A+. I don't think they let
people use their credit. I'd trust anybody for a couple of
thousand hours (1 Greenyear) owed. I'd especially trust the
unemployed to put back any hours of service they consume.
I don't mind them starting everyone with AB125 in chips because
that's fair. But even Ithaca has gone to granting credit and
Facebook will have to too because it's always up to the seller to
look at the buyer's Facebook account and see if he's a user or
also a contributor of services.
And I wouldn't even mind if Facebook wanted to operate a
Berkshare (Toronto Dollar) style of cash-buy-in for premium
letting Facebook hold the cash we hope to almost never need
again.
They keep saying that 2012 is the date of the big conversion from
Hell to worse but few think it could also be Hell to best Heaven.
Watch Zeitgeist Addendum to appreciate how beautiful the world
will be once there's enough money to finance paychecks for
everyone.
I don't "job" creation. Losing "jobs." "Jobs" going overseas
because it's not the jobs, it's the paychecks and calling it jobs
keeps the real issue nebulous like the "jobs" got on a boat and
sailed away to be land elsewhere. It's the paycheck that does the
traveling but calling the paycheck a "job" keeps people unaware
of how to combat the movement of "jobs." Har har. Sad.
Anyway, Facebook has a perfect model for small-time-trading
anyway though they probably couldn't handle my 39-night European
tour worth $195 Hours for 39 nights, around $1,950US in credit
used.
Of course, I've put back many more hours of volunteer service in
my community and owing for my accommodations with no
accommodations in return after 10 years causes me no guilt as
long as people in Brantford who appreciate my hours of service
honor any overseas visitor's IOU whom I can't put up, even after
I'm gone.
Looks like the ultimate personal time-based currency is almost
here. And as soon as Facebook finds a way to send my transaction
to Twitter members or other networks, the fight for debt
liberation will be over.
So maybe 2012 for a new better world but we may as well try for
2011.