Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Bartering Systems

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

At Sharingwood we tried a system of childcare dollars, where we printed up a 
bunch of play money and then "Paid" each other for childcare.  If you got 
low on money you needed to do some more childcare, if you got too much money 
you needed to go out more.  An hourly rate was set with discounts for two 
kids, etc.

We used it for about 3 months, then it got abandoned.  It turned out that 
one couple went out a lot, and another couple rarely went out, and so the 
whole system really didn't work.  There was some discussion about expanding 
it to other services, but it was never brought up again and so it just got 
abandoned.  People tend to watch others kids in more or less a random but 
equitiable manner and so we no longer track it by using the money system. 
 People tend to do stuff for others because they want to, not because of 
some obligation.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood