Monetary Theory and the Great Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-op Crisis: Comment
Monetary Theory and the Great Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-op Crisis: Comment
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货币理论和国会山保姆合作社大危机：评论
DOI：
10.2307/1992001
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发表时间：
1977
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
R. Sweeney
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Joan L. Sweeney;R. Sweeney
两个是华盛顿的。美国最杰出的机构--联邦储备系统理事会和国会山婴儿看护合作社--目前正在各自与通货膨胀的祸害作斗争。两人似乎都没有赢。无论董事会的经验教训是什么，合作社的经验教训是显而易见的。(1)合作社一直在通过运行预算赤字来增加其人均货币供应量（“代币”），这产生了通货膨胀的力量。(2)然而，这种代币购买的主要“商品”是照看婴儿的时间，而照看婴儿的价格在宪法上是每半小时照看婴儿一个单位的代币。因此，这种价格控制制度意味着通货膨胀的压力不会推高保姆的价格，通货膨胀被抑制，短缺被发现。（3）纠正这种情况的政治进程几乎没有希望。很少有成员国认为问题根本上是货币问题，而是认为其他国家没有在消除短缺方面尽自己的一份力量。对于门外汉来说，知道有几种形式的保姆合作社可能会有所帮助。一种流行的形式是簿记系统。在最基本的版本中，成员每坐一个小时就能获得一个学分，而每容忍一个小时就失去一个学分。在这个阶段，合作社制定规则--为了公平、有用、方便--并使事情顺利进行。例如，人们在周五和周六比其他日子更想出去。要么有规则--“如果你周末出去，你必须在周末坐着”--要么有奖励--“周末一次半。当然，必须有规则来防止人们在工作时间“下降”时搬走。如果有很多人参与的话，簿记系统的主要替代品是“临时凭证”系统临时凭证是一张张厚重的纸。在国会山保姆合作社，一个辉煌的组织，我们属于两年，
Two of Washington D.C.'s most splendid institutions-the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-operative-are currently fighting their own separate battles against the scourge of inflation. Neither seems to be winning. Whatever the lessons of the board's experience, the lessons from the co-op's are clear. (1) The co-op has been increasing its money supply ("scrip") per capita, by running budget deficits, and this has generated inflationary forces. (2) However, the main "commodity" this scrip money buys is baby-sitting time, and the price of baby sitting is constitutionally pegged at one unit of scrip for every one-half hour of baby sitting. Hence, this system of price controls means the inflationary pressure does not drive up the scrip-price of baby sitting, inflation is suppressed, and shortages are found. (3) The political process of rectifying the situation holds little hope. Few members see the problem as fundamentally monetary, but instead believe others are not doing their part in removing the shortages. For the uninitiated, it may help to know that there are several forms of babysitting co-ops. One popular form is the bookkeeping system. In the most rudimentary version, members earn one credit for each hour of sitting, and lose one credit for every hour someone tolerates their kids. A co-op at this stage develops rules-for fairness, usefulness, for expediency-and to make the thing go at all. For example, people want to go out on Friday and Saturday more than on other days. Either there are rules-"If you go out on weekends, you must sit on weekends"-or there are rewards-"Time-and-a-half on weekends." And, of course, there must be rules to keep people from moving away when they're "down" on hours. The major alternative to the bookkeeping system, if there are many people involved, is a "scrip" system-the scrip is pieces of heavy paper. In the Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-op, a splendid organization to which we belonged for two years, a