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Gardens of Hope discussion thread

RD: How does the money system lead to those outcomes?

BL: Practically all Balinese participate in a dual currency system. The first is the conventional national currency (the Indonesian Rupiah); the second is a time currency where the unit of account is a block of time of approximately three hours. This second currency is created and used within the "banjar"-this is a community entity consisting of between 50 and 500 families. It is in each banjar that the decisions are made democratically to launch any big community project. It could be to put on a festival or build a school. For each project, they always make two complementary budgets: one in the national currency, and one in time. That second currency-called "narayan banjar" (meaning work for the common good of the community)-is created by the people themselves. They don't have to compete in the outside world to obtain that second currency, and it fosters cooperation between the members of the community. I call it a yin currency-it's more feminine in nature. And it complements the national currency, which is a competitive currency and therefore of a yang, or masculine, nature.

Here's why it works: poor communities don't have a lot of national currency, but they tend to have a lot of time. In rich communities, the opposite tends to be the case-people have more national currency, but less time. In either case, each banjar is capable of creating extraordinary events just by budgeting and using more of the kind of currency-national or time-in which they are rich. This balance is a key contribution to the unusually strong community spirit that prevails in Bali. And it's not just because they're Hindus. There are almost a billion Hindus in India, and they don't behave that way. Here is an example of how a currency can make a difference.

http://www.omidyar.net/group/currencies/news/25/?page=1#comment8

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