Reimagining the Community Economy
When Hunter and I started building KinderUS, we didn’t know that we were setting out on a journey to learn about community. I’d never put a whole lot of thought into community before; it just seemed like the air — a natural part of my environment that I never really stopped to appreciate.
We all have value to offer
Our father — who Hunter wrote about here — couldn’t work an eight hour day but he (a career theater teacher with a doctorate) would still teach a free community seminar once a week.
So we began to wonder: what if he’d been able to get a few healthy home-cooked meals in exchange for his time? What if the economic structures we put in place to increase our efficiency as a society actually decrease both our human value and our economic value and efficiency?
One thing was clear: community and economy are inextricably linked.
Our interest led us to the work of Dr. Edgar Cahn, whose book Time Dollars presents his answer to the very same problem we saw with our father: many people who are older or have physical disabilities have very little money, but plenty of time. Often, they can’t participate in the traditional economy, but they can offer their time to others. He conceptualized units of time as a form of currency; these quasi-barter systems were tried successfully across the world (most notably in Japan).
All interactions are transactions
Everything — from love and companionship to food and service is to some degree transactional. Family members take care of one another because they love them, and are in turn loved by them. Networking in the professional world thrives because social status matters.
And yet, for some reason, our culture draws a line between commerce and community.
That line hampers the well-being of the most vulnerable among us; it hampers local relationships, and most critically it hampers trust.
Merging community and commerce benefits everyone
Starting in our neighborhoods, we can begin to blur the lines between community and commerce and build personally and economically meaningful relationships.
If I’m going to the grocery store, why should my neighbor be paying Instacart or taking a separate trip just to grab a couple items?
Now, if you don’t know your neighbor it’s easier to order off Instacart. And as many post-2008 sharing economy startups learned, it’s easier to order a drill on Amazon than drive halfway across the city to pick it up.
But when you break down those barriers and strengthen hyperlocal networks, new monetary and non-monetary economic paths emerge.
Business thrives on trust; trust thrives on personal relationships and physical or virtual proximity
Simply put, people like to do business with people that they know and trust: a contractor who you have a preexisting relationship with is often the safest bet.
Where do we go from here?
As community organizers have known for years, stronger community connections improve our quality of life, connect us with our neighbors, strengthen local businesses, and reduce loneliness — all we have to do is change our way of thinking.
The current crisis has reinvigorated latent community bonds, and given us a once-in-a-generation chance to reimagine what a community means. We have to harness our ingenuity and technology to build systems that make it as easy to coordinate and communicate with your neighbors as it is to order an Uber.
These systems will be decentralized, hyperlocal, personal, proactive and tiered: each local group will know how they fit into the larger ecosystem and will be incentivized to act.
That’s the next part of the KinderUS journey, and we’re on it together.
Want to stay in touch?
We are currently in Los Angeles, CA and are expanding rapidly. If you think your community needs Kinder, add your name to our waitlist!
Thanks for your support,
Team Kinder
