10 Money is a tool for trading, and issuing Riverwest HOURS will add to our reliable money supply, so more people can trade, and more trading means more jobs.

9 Riverwest HOURS will be based on hours of labor, with one HOUR
equal to $10. This raises the local hourly wage for many people. That benefits
workers, and businesses too, since people have more to spend. Professionals
may ask for more than one HOUR per hour, but using HOURS as local currency
reminds us that wealth comes from labor, and everyone deserves fair pay.

8 With better hourly pay, more people are more able to afford
locally-made crafts and food. So more local people can start businesses doing
things they like.

7 A certain percentage of Riverwest HOURS can be issued as grants to local non-profit organizations. This could help bring the force of local
labor to support youth initiatives, senior citizen programs, parks, affordable
housing, and other projects. It’s a way to keep decision-making local on what we want to do in our neighborhood.

6 Riverwest HOURS can be used for small business loans with no
interest charged. Paying interest can be a drain on the local economy, sucking
money out of our community and spiriting it away to big lending institutions,
and slowing down many important projects. The interest HOURS earns is community interest—the benefit of extra jobs and local trading.

5 Using Riverwest HOURS can help people get to know their neighbors.
A local currency promotes a friendlier economy—kind of a mutual enterprise
system that’s created by average people, and helps create more economic freedom for all, instead of the federal system’s economic free-for-all that makes
a few people richer, and the rest of us poorer.

4 Riverwest HOURS could only be used in Riverwest, so the wealth
generated by trading them would be kept here, forever, instead of going out
of our neighborhood to absentee landlords, national chains, or multinational
corporations that may not share our concerns or values.

3 Riverwest HOURS would be real money, backed by real people, real
time, real skills and tools. Federal dollars, by contrast, are "funny money,"
backed no longer by gold or silver but by less than nothing—trillions of dollars of national debt.

2 Riverwest HOURS would be perfectly legal. They’re "local tender,"
and recognized by the government. The IRS just asks that people count them
as income.

1 Riverwest HOURS would be fun, and raise our spirits. They would
generate a lot of talk and interest in how local economies work, and help
keep us mindful that the way we spend our money is the way we spend our time.

Riverwest Currents - Volume 1 - Issue 7 - August 2002