A closer look
Why slave away for a federal dollar when you can just print your own money backed by nothing but the sheer promise of human labor? In 1991, an activist in Ithaca, New York, created a local currency called "Ithaca HOURS." The valuation was brilliantly literal: one HOUR was valued at ten dollars, which was roughly the average local hourly wage. Instead of hoarding wealth in a bank, residents traded HOURS for carpentry, plumbing, or fresh vegetables. It functioned as a completely legal, tax-compliant secondary economy designed strictly to keep value trapped within the local community, effectively immunizing a tiny hippie town against Wall Street fluctuations.
