Money's job is to communicate reciprocity, so that people are paid the equivalent of the work they do, an hour of productive work for an hour of productive work.
We know the length of a meter because we can see its length. Therefore, the meter is the same length in all countries.
By putting time on money we would clarify how much each of us deserves to be paid for the work we do. There would always be room for negotiation. Some people could be paid more and some people paid less than an hour of money for an hour of work, but the range of variation would be much less than it is oday.
Work time is already the center of gravity for currency exchange rates. Divide the Gross Domestic Product of every country by the hours of work that produced it. This tells us the value of every country’s money per hour of work. These GDP’s per hour of work for 2004 correlate with actual currency exchange rates a strong .86 of a possible 1.00.
The center diagonal line represents equal work time. If all countries were on that line, their currencies would exchange equal time for equal time.
This strong relationship has existed for all the years that the International Monetary Fund has published currency exchange rates, since 1948. That tells us that equal work time is in fact, though unrecognized, the world money unit.
Rich countries are below the line of equal work time; poor countries are above the line. This tells us that exchange rates of rich countries are too low and exchange rates of poor countries are too high. Equalizing them will make trade more fair and more sustainable and do more to help poor countries rise out of poverty than any other form of aid.
To contact Bob Blain:
Cooperation
P.O. Box 644
Edwardsville, Illinois 62025
Phone:1- 618-656-5706
E-mail: Bob_Blain@hourmoney.org