Comments on: Selling Salvation III: Property and Prostitution

By: Jakeleg

Jakeleg — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:20:01 +0000

What if I derive true joy from my work and the rewards it provides?
My heart sees nothing untrue in this process.
I am one of the blessed few who are self employed in a field I thoroughly love.
Can anybody show me the harm in this?

By: Jeff Lilly

Jeff Lilly — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:08:50 +0000

Kate, I’d heard of Ithaca Hours, and I think it’s a great idea. It’s nice in that it says: one hour of my time is worth one hour of your time. This sets up an equivalency between the individuals, regardless of the value of the work done. Notably, though, doctors and dentists are allowed to charge more Ithaca Hours per hour than other people are.

But it still seems to me that if you are selling your services, whether in exchange for others’ hours or for dollars, you’re ignoring the absolute value of your time and effort, and putting it in the balance against other things. It’s the act of comparison itself that is demeaning.

By: Kate Gladstone

Kate Gladstone — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:18 +0000

Jeff —
I will only say that I don’t see these things the way that you do (probably ou would disagree very strongly with my way of seeing things), but that I wouldn’t welcome any economic system that didn’t leave room for people to do things your way.

I don’t want to talk about economics — since I do not have the training that would make my opinion anything more than an opinion — other than to say this:

As I see it, what people sell under capitalism (at least, before the capitalism rots into corporatism) is not themselves, but the things they do or make …
or, possibly, the time required to make or to do those things.
For a currently working example of an economic system based on time commitments, Google “Ithaca Hours”: the results will fascinate you!