Comment by The Shiznit on July 21, 2012 at 6:10am

Mark Boyle (Moneyless Man)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/series/moneyless-man

The Freeconomy Website - Just for the Love of It.org

The Freecycle Network

The Free World Charter

Comment by March E. on July 21, 2012 at 8:12am

Very courageous guy to be experimenting with a new way to live without money. I really want to know how he's done it for a few years. He says something that probably will be very profound for people as people: "We think of economy as money. But actually the monetary economy is just but one example of an economy. What an economy is about is: where is it meeting our needs?" 

Awesome post, Shiz :D 

Comment by SparTom007 - Tom on July 21, 2012 at 8:56pm

Interesting however he's not taking technology into account. Without the monetary system we wouldn't have gotten where we are today and although I agree it now does more bad than good, it's silly to take this approach to a moneyless society in my opinion. We don't have to go back to living like cavemen (sorry but that's all I see here) and this guy's ideas will never get through to the masses. It's nice to see but it's all a bit too stereotypical hippie.

There are solutions out there to rid the world of money and bring the world consciousness to a "pay it forward" mindset paradigm however we wouldn't need to lose many of the things we enjoy today like computers, colgate and microwaved plasticy burgers (delicious!)

As much as I despise the world's problems and am devoting my life to ridding them in the hopes that I will see a new world of understanding in my lifetime, I think this guy has it almost completely wrong.

I do agree we need to get back in touch with nature, get rid of money and make all economies localised and distributed.

I'm doing a big post on my website, when I have time, about my ideas :P

Comment by Sorlaize on July 21, 2012 at 10:23pm

This sounds awesome. I read about an old man that lived by finding scraps of food.. he still had complete freedom though. I'm planning a camping/walking trip which will be completely free (including rowing in the sea part of the way in UK waters) and the only (small) costs are getting to Scotland and back via public transport.

@Tom

You don't have to replace society.. you can have both :) streamlined monetary / finance is key but the system we have now is that it's not a normal thing to share possessions with other people, even. Not even cars. Which, when I think about this objectively, seems really weird and unnecessary.

If you're not using something, why does it need to exist just for you? For most household items you wouldn't really miss that particular one.. so.. there are many fundamental ways in which we can make our world better today. Not just a trading framework like ebay but free... but, why not sign up for loaning household, gardening, outdoors tools like we sign up to stream TV and movies through something like Netflix? It simply makes no sense to hold onto things when you don't need them.. there's space and money to be saved. Just have warehouses full of things people NEED in place of rows and rows of shiny new items.. in place of shops nobody even visits. There's many things that can be changed.

Comment by SparTom007 - Tom on July 21, 2012 at 11:14pm

@Sorlaize, perhaps you misunderstood me :P  I also advocate things like resource libraries. E.g. What's the point in everyone in one housing estate owning lawnmowers? Not everyone will use them at the same time, so just all get one and share it.  Less waste and more interaction between people. I understand what you mean, but I'm not sure what the right term for it is yet if there is one. It's not really out there yet. xD

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