Potential Monetary Characteristics For Time Value

Is time value capable of assuming economic functions similar in nature to what money provides? More specifically, how could local defined equilibrium make it feasible for time value to serve as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and also as a store of value?

Granted, time value has long been considered too variable to serve as a standard unit, especially given the extremes of individual abilities in open economies. However, in the last century there have been extensive price making claims on time value, in relation to the revenue sources it depends upon. When prior monetary claims include production rights for knowledge use, the process exacerbates already existing differences in personal aptitude. This arbitrary skills polarization only makes it more difficult for different groups to effectively coordinate time based services with one another. We need economic options which broaden services markets by restoring skills capacities in a closer range, so that modern day economies can benefit citizens regardless of income level.

Unlike tradable sector markets where the wealth representation of resource capacity is obvious, market capacity in non tradable sector activity relies on wealth claims which lack immediate reciprocity. Consequently, many present day services sector costs are actually being shifted towards future generations. Time as an economic unit of value, via symmetric alignment and coordination, could eventually resolve more services provision costs in the present. Hopefully, once time value gains monetary characteristics, it will generate non tradable sector market capacity which goes well beyond the present price making demands on general equilibrium revenue.

First, time arbitrage would play an active role. Voluntarily matched time preferences would create new supply and demand in services markets, on price taking terms. Matched time is the initial activity which allows time arbitrage to function as a local medium of exchange. Eventually, once a given group becomes established, the debt cancelling function (time purchasing time), allows time arbitrage to become monetarily and institutionally backed. Since this mutual employment process functions as a source of wealth origination, it not only creates additional resource capacity, but greater economic inclusion as well.

Time arbitrage as a unit of account, would also serve as a record keeping device with a long term storytelling component. As a unit of account, time arbitrage would not only generate a history (or continuum) for group activity, these records include pricing signals which allow mutually held priorities to function more effectively. Unit of account storytelling suggests learning opportunities which occasionally extend beyond local participants, to others who might become part of the process as well.

For time arbitrage, the store of value function may prove most useful for the benefits of recorded time insurance which accrues in one's own lifetime, rather than what goes into a recorded group continuum. A store of value option could help individuals reserve future commitments in simple skills from the group by initially providing their own. In particular, the more time one gives to those in need of assistance who presently can't reciprocate, the more one might gain assurance of the same, at a later point in life.

This is a more direct approach to coordination potential, than what is presently available in markets for time based services. All too often, insurance offerings or perhaps informal commitments from others for life needs, leave us hoping for more personal attention than what is realistically feasible. Further, many who wish to better their lives in the present, understandably set their sights higher than simple services provision for others. This reality occasionally creates trust issues for those who are mostly left with simple services options, instead of choosing them willingly. Time insurance for simple service offerings would make it easier for all concerned, to continue pursuing meaningful challenges in other aspects of life and mutual employment opportunities.

Monetary characteristics for time value, could help restore growth on terms which few can really argue against. After all, time use potential is one of the few natural resources which is clearly underutilized in modern day economies! Even if monetary framing for time value seems as though a technical approach, it still provides a key which could open an entirely new realm of possibilities, for inclusive and accessible services generation.