Paul Glover — Print Your Own Money [The Story of Ithaca Hours]

Twenty-two years ago, I designed colorful paper cash for Ithaca, New York, featuring local children, waterfalls, trolleys, and bugs, printed stacks of it then convinced several thousand people and 500 businesses that it was real money. Since then, millions of dollars worth of Ithaca HOURS have been traded. Each HOUR is worth one hour of basic labor or $10. Professionals can charge multiple HOURS per hour, but we remind residents that all labor is respected. Loans up to $30,000 have been offered interest-free and grants to more than 100 local groups have been made. Community cash enables good things to happen wherever dollars are scarce.
The program made such good sense that it was embraced by Ithaca’s most conservative residents, its most liberal, and most apolitical. That’s because everybody wants more money. We wanted to create more jobs, strengthen small businesses, and stimulate friendly trade. Some of us also wanted to shift economic power to ecological enterprise, especially to organic farms. We wanted to reward peaceful labor instead of warmaking. Some of us used the money to take control of health costs by creating our own grassroots health system. Others of us were eager to trade our skills with people who could become new friends.

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Print Your Own Money
Paul Glover | founder of 18 organizations and campaigns, including HOURS, Philadelphia Orchard Project, Citizen Planners of Los Angeles, and League of Uninsured Voters. He’s the author of six books and a former professor of urban studies at Temple University