Freeconomy Blog
Tue
10 Apr
Living without Money and the Transition movement
| 46 comments |
Last week I wrote a blog for the Transition movement as part of a week their social reporter's were running on living without money. For those of you who haven't heard of Transition, it's a movement that has spread to every corner of the globe. Their overall aim is to help people make the transition from where we are now (in terms of this planet's ability to sustain us) to where we need to go to. It actually goes much further than that in practice - it gives people a framework in which they can co-create healthy, happy lives into the bargain.
To fully understand what they're about, I'd highly recommend reading its founder's (Rob Hopkins) blog, Transition Culture, which, in his words, is an exploration of how we can make "our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest site." He also has a new book out called The Transition Companion.
The Transition movement has really informed my own work with Freeconomy and its path forward, and the thinking behind it is central to a new book I am in the process of polishing off called The Moneyless Manifesto (out in November, published by Green Books). More on that later in the year.
I'm also become aware that an old article on the Guardian (the first article that then kicked off the whole moneyless series for the Guardian) has resurfaced this week and has gone a bit viral, as membership to Freeconomy sky-rocketed over the last few days. I'd no idea why at first, but I've since been reliably informed by many people that it is the source.
Therefore many of you reading this will be rather new to the idea of creating a non-monetary economy, so I thought it might be useful to publish the article I did for Transition on this site too. This blog below will give you more of an idea than that old article for the Guardian about some of my ideas on moneyless living. However, please do feel free to share the Guardian article on facebook or wherever as it really does bring the Freeconomy website to a lot more people, hopefully making a positive impact on their life in some way.
Living without Money - making the transition
Living without money. On first inspection, these three words sound extreme and would seem to involve no small amount of sacrifice. I can understand why. The cultural story that is money has such a powerful hold on our minds today that we have come to believe that we could not possibly ever live without it. Living without clean air, fresh water and fertile soil bizarrely seems a more moderate challenge in comparison. Yet on closer inspection, our reaction towards even the discussion of moneyless living reveals more about the extremity of our own indoctrination, our own conditioning, than it does about the way of life itself. For to see the non-monetary economy in action, one need only go for a simple walk in the woods, cook dinner for a friend or swim in our vast oceans. Every other species on Earth lives without money. Our ancestors had no notion of money, and many peoples still resist it today, even against all the might of the military-industrial complex and the cultural missionaries spreading its Word.
And I myself, after two and a half years of living without money, no longer see it as extreme. Extreme is converting the Earth's splendour and bounty – its salmon, its magnificent ancient redwoods, its rolling hills, its generous soil, its gushing rivers, its gloriously Wild creatures – and the pageantry of life into meaningless numbers with no intrinsic worth. Extreme is not knowing our neighbours, let alone feeling comfortable enough to ask them for help. Extreme is having a spare room in your house while others sleep on the street. Extreme is spending our lives doing jobs we hate, just so that we can repay the bank money that it created out of thin air in the first instance. Extreme is taking what was freely given to us and then charging another part of Nature for it, only sharing that which was gifted to us if we receive something in return. Extreme is walking towards the precipice as we smugly recycle our tetrapaks. Extreme is letting it all unfold before our eyes, as if somehow we were not powerful enough to stop it.
Yet such views go against everything we are taught from the moment we enter school and begin training to meet the needs of the economy. We learn that financial considerations must usurp respect, compassion and the health of our land. And anyway, why would anyone consider co-creating their own local economy when this big one we already have is so convenient? The reasons are as varied as the ecological, social and financial crises we have created. For some, it is simply because the dominant economic model makes it almost impossible for them to make ends meet without accruing debt. Others want the sense of freedom and autonomy that comes with being completely self-reliant, avoiding dependence on what they abhor as the brutal machinery of the state and capitalism. Some tell me they strive towards it as a deep spiritual journey, living in the moment and trusting that each day will provide. A few have divulged that they are getting prepared for that apocalyptic scenario we all want to avoid. Many want to do it because they want to reduce their complicity in a monetary economy that seems hell bent on destroying all before it, turning the Earth into a hot landfill site that is a viable home for 50,000 fewer species each and every year.
My own original reasons for moving beyond money were simple: I believed – and still do four years later – that until we reconnect with what we consume, there will always be sweatshops, always be clearcuts, always be oil spills. Money disconnects us, and protects us from being fully exposed to the atrocities that we fund, things that if we witnessed we would never want done in our name. Despite reading lots about the social and ecological impacts of fossil fuels over many years, it wasn't until I saw the watery eyes of Iraqi refugees in Calais in 2008 that I decided to give up using oil. I believe that until we feel the pain of the Earth and all that dwells on it at the deepest level, our behaviour will not drastically change. Why would it? I also realised that until I connected with Her, I would not understand my interdependence with Her. We believe we are somehow separate from Nature, above Her, and it is here that all our problems begin. Consciously rejecting money reconnects you and places you amongst Nature once again. You see that the air, the water and the soil are not your environment, they are you.
That was the initial impulse for rejecting it. Today there are an almost infinite number of reasons why I believe that moneyless living (which I prefer to call “the localised gift economy”) is the only truly sustainable and non-exploitative economic model available to us. These range from the economic to the ecological, and from the social to the personal, but a short blog is not the place to explore all of that. Instead, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. If you did decide to give moneyless living a go, what would it mean you have to give up? In general, my experience has taught me that it involves the sacrifice of very little of value, whilst the gains have been immensely rewarding. Sure, money can give us a sense of security and independence. But anyone who has experienced hyper-inflation will testify to the illusory nature of that security, and ‘financial independence’ is simply replacing dependence on neighbours with dependence on more distant people who you don’t have to be nice to. Someone is still growing your food and making your products – you just don’t meet them. I have come to see living with money as living without full and total relationship with the Earth, without interdependency on our communities and without full awareness of the horrors that are inflicted on Nature (including humanity). Money allows you to live with oil and plastics, but without the sight of the collateral damage that is an Iraqi's tears. Living with money is living without the Wild that currently lies caged within your soul. And it has consequences – the ecological and social mess we see before us today.
Non-monetary economics is not prescriptive – take what suits your purposes and leave the rest. You may want to be moneyless simply for food, or for your shoes, aphrodisiacs or soap. You may just want to travel overland to a cave in Turkey without needing a penny, make your own drum out of a roadkill buck, or produce all your own booze. It was in recognition of this that myself and Shaun Chamberlin, Transition Town Kingston co-founder and author of The Transition Timeline, devised a mechanism called the Progression of Principles (POP) model to help us all on our individual paths. It allows you to make a transition from the economy you live within now (the global, exchange based economy) to whatever economy you would like to be in (which for me is a localised gift economy), progressing with the speed and urgency that feels appropriate to you.
The model is created by you, for you, and there is no 'right' or 'wrong'. For example, my ideal for transport is to walk barefoot, feeling the dew beneath my feet as I tread carefully amongst Nature. But in reality, I'm up to my neck in work. Therefore at the bottom of my personal POP model for transport is where I am now – a bike salvaged from the detritus of industrialised society, in the middle a pair of clogs I made from local wood or a pair of cast-off trainers, and at the top barefoot walking. Using it I can then commit to designing my life in such a way that in two / five / seven years I'll have made my way to a point where my actions reflect my beliefs, and where my spirituality is applied in the litmus test of the physical world.Practically speaking, there are many ways you can live moneyless. The purest (least dependent on the monetary economy you are trying to replace) of these is to do it Palaeolithic style. This involves foraging, hunting with stone-age weapons, flint-knapping and making your own shelter, cordage and so on. A difficult option in The Age of the Machine, but a beautiful one to strive for. One rung down from that is Permaculture, which I feel gives the best balance between realism and idealism. Finally, there is the mode of moneyless living that is fully embedded in industrialised society. This involves squatting, eating waste food, and using gift economy websites (such as Freeconomy, Freecycle, Couch-surfing and so on) to meet your needs. None of these options are more right or wrong than the others. Your unique situation will dictate what is most appropriate for you both now and in the future. If you crave freedom and complete connection with the land, then learning to live off its fruits completely is the option for you. However, if you're an activist campaigning against the atrocities of The Machine (in which we are all easily interchangeable cogs) by using your laptop in a city, squatting and skipping will mean that you can devote all your time to that without having to get a job to pay rent or buy food. Either way, it will also reduce your complicity in the destruction you see around you by simply not investing in it.
Living without money is not extreme, and it is not a sacrifice, but it appears so if viewed through the lens of the dominant cultural stories, the ones that have led to the convergence of crises we face. We know that we need to change the way we live now, and we need to do it drastically, but doing so will look unrealistic until we challenge and change our thinking. Until we fully understand our interdependence with the whole, and reconnect with what we consume, I do not expect to see the fundamental social, political and lifestyle changes that could make our future not only sustainable, but worth living in.
Moneylessness can be a simple practical tool to help you live the life you want. And by doing so, you'll be an example that there is another way of living, one based on respect, symbiosis and unconditional love, to everyone that you encounter along your way.
THE FREECONOMY BLOG is written by Mark Boyle, who lived for over two years without money, and is the founder of the Freeconomy Community. He is the author of The Moneyless Man.
Comment on this Post:
Inspired. comments ...
Very powerfull words, most ejoyable to read. Maybe one day we will all wake up from the nightmare and start living rather than just exsisting.
Mark Boyle comments ...
@ Inspired -- yes I think we need to start asking ourselves what we want our lives to be about, what is important to us.
niels peter comments ...
just to say I really like your work - http://npflint.5d-media.dk/?p=761
I / WE comments ...
It is very much like the matrix in contrast to the actual realities outside.
and also the film total recall for a picture of making money out of scarcity, of air, in the original film.
So one could imagine a similar film bringing out an awareness of the creation of false shortage of the real abundance of our other needs too. but then many films and books .......have been written on this . and we still do nothing.
The main aspect of money happening over the length of time of the actual recording of the written word of his story is of this artificial scarcity needed to charge money, and its consequent creation of starvation of us.of death amidst abundance for a percentage of us which has been happening over all this time. I would say the most sharing personalities of us have been dying, in whose nature it is not to be competitive, who do not have competitive ability. So for 5 or so thousand years its been a transition of a spread of the exchange paradigm, the competitive paradigm.
It cannot be that only now this is beginning to be seen.
This situation must have been seen many times in the past and many attempts must have been made against the exchange paradigms increase.
As Charles Eisenstein says we need evolution not revolution.
And if you think about it things are probably stacked in our favour, as what we've got to change to is an increasingly happier world from this miserable one!
A more holiday world than this workaday one.
A more creative interesting world than this mundane one.
A world with more variety and more vitality than this monoculture one.
I / WE comments ...
just to add to what I said about competition.
partly because you have mentioned in the past that you are competitive.
we aren't either this or that, but a mixture of the two. So if you like competition that's ok as its in you, a part of you, but sharing will also be in you.
I feel, one dominates over the other , and, not to suppress the other necessarily.but that in life you will act more sharing than you do competitive, or that in life you will act more competitive than you will act sharing.
So its not right to feel bad about a part of oneself, as that is you. how you are and how you are born.
What's wrong is not oneself but that in this society competition dominates totally over sharing.
And by the same token it probably isn't right that sharing could come to dominate over competition.
What will probably happen is that competition will move over to allow sharing to be, and both will come to exist as harmoniously as possible.
a balance and possibly from that, peace, or a better happiness.
(selfishly, I'd like total sharing, I recognise others wouldn't)
magicalcat comments ...
do you ever wonder why after all this time we still have no change in our financial system? Beginning to feel about like the coming of Christ/end of the world/arrival of aliens. I meet so few people who have genuine concerns, and these people are very lovely, but like myself are trapped in a system we seem incapable of changing. Each messiah coming along tells us how we can change the world, we get excited, meet up in groups, try and encourage others to join, then...? We find another messiah who comes along, we learn, we form groups, try and encourage others to join...it then goes around again.
The only way we can live without money is to leave this country, not sure where to, but I challenge anyone to truly live without money here, that would include not skip scavenging, that is part of this system, the items maybe thrown away but they were originally bought with money. To live without money would mean living off the land and making our own things from the land. And to do this we need to buy land, we cannot just take land here in UK.
As much as I want this lifestyle, I have come to believe it is not realistic, it is a wonderful dream.
If anyone can tell me how I can live this dream, I would love to know how. I have a disability which means I need medication and I need the comforts and basic necessities that this material world brings or I would not be able to cope with my pain. Moneyless living would not provide this.
Soha Tanwir Khan comments ...
Dude, you are SUCH an inspiration. I've always imagined a world without money and been talking about it since grade school, then in college, then at university - and every single time I would just get shot down. But you did it, man. You did it. I salute and hope that one day I can follow in your footsteps. Incredible.
Cheers,
From Pakistan.
Diana Korchien comments ...
Mark, I'm sure you are often challenged on the following point: if everyone resorted to foraging and living off the land, would there be enough to satisfy basic needs in this urbanised environment? Could it ever happen in all practicality? And on the subject of your forthcoming book 'The Moneyless Manifesto' - are you waiving your royalties so that Green Books can make a better profit?
maytree comments ...
@Magicalcat
You wrote:
I challenge anyone to truly live without money here, that would include not skip scavenging, that is part of this system, the items maybe thrown away but they were originally bought with money. To live without money would mean living off the land and making our own things from the land. And to do this we need to buy land, we cannot just take land here in UK.
I identify with your statement wholeheartedly. We live on a tight budget and grow quite a lot of potatoes and other vegetables.
I agree it would be very difficult to truly live without money. I for one would not be comfortable with hitching lifts and taking them from people who paid for fuel and worked hard to be able to do that. While it's true that a hitch-hiker might be an entertaining companion to shorten the road, offering stories or singing some of my own songs will not contribute materially to help keep that car on the road. And however great it would be if we could run cars/carts or whatever for free, this is not possible at the moment. I know what it costs to keep a car on the road and I'd be slow to sponge off someone who may need to keep mobile but may be barely able to do so.
Also, Magicalcat, You wrote:
I have a disability which means I need medication.
I too need medication and I have good reason to be thankful to modern medicine.
comments ...
maybe people need more of the picture of the way things are.
everything basic, not processed goods , are already free, all. total.(the human special ability is to process/cook/engineer primary resources into other goods)
This world is given to us, to all life, for life, for free. no payback except that which continues life, the beautiful goodness of our bodily excretions and our soil.
so one way of looking at money is that it causes those totally, utterly free primary goods, to be SHARED out in a pyramid, or hierarchical shape, for the hierarchical people us, who process them into processed goods.
The shape of this pyramid is worse, its actually a champagne glass.
a very apt shape for how we generally measure success.winning.(irony)
money is limiting, because of 'winning', because of competition, which we hold in great esteem, this creates a scarcity which is artificial which people actually like,
however, it socially excludes, and it is heinous not because for the majority humans it excludes people from most of the processed goods made out of our totally free earth primary resources, but because it socially excludes people from life and bodily needs.
it kills, money and its use to facilitate competitive distribution kills and starves us.
That is the major aspect.
the 2/3 world.
any method that frees , truly frees ACCESS and utility to the land/earth we have been purposefully dispossessed off, will allow the majority to newly recreate the natural old economy. No need to tell people or to force them, we will just do it, we will act because it is natural because we are for the most part sharing family community beings who like to enhance and enrichen our lives.
The majority of people today and yesterday aren't fearful and scared and worried about monetary economics because of car rides or other goods and services of that type, they/we are majorly concerned about life needs, the 4 simple needs of our bodies.
As for the medical aspect. Yes this is a marker of competitive countries, the poorest competitive countries have the lowest medical facility, and the shortest lifespan rates, going up through the hierarchy to the top most winning countries one finds the longest lived peoples. It has always been so and for 6000 years.
the peoples at the top live the longest.
same goes historically, the lifespans of those au the top lived the longest.
We live in what we are called, a race.
So yes the system is a pyramid, a race of health.
Except , for those countries that we find live on low sustainable resources, but are happy.
so there is a way.
the economics of happiness.of community sharing. and valuing each other for other than money.
for a very recent report on the economics of happiness, see
http://www.yesmagazine.org/@@also-by?author=Laura+Musikanski
-------------------------------------
apologies for my spelling and any wrong words.
josephannett comments ...
@ magicalcat. I liked what you said in your comment about not being able to completely escape the money system. I have looked at/visited a number of eco villages aiming at self sufficiency but the cost of buying into the schemes was way above my means. I drew the conclusion that to escape the rat race you need to be doing pretty well in it.. And i agree with you on the idea that to set up your patch of paradise you would still need money to buy the land and the powers that be would undoubtedly want regular payments of some sort just to keep you tied into the system. Also, like yourself, i rely on daily medication for life so how would i obtain this without money? Part of this transition/solution might lie in 'local currencies'/interest free economies i have been reading about.
Joe :)
AndrÉ de A. Fialhö comments ...
Hello I would just first of all congratulate Mark Boyle or Saoirse for all is work, in second Place I wrote a Manifesto Callaed Manifesto Lindbergh in which I deffend a moneyless society. keep your amazing work you give me inspiration.
Mark Boyle comments ...
@ Josephannet - Hi Joe - yes unfortunately local currencies would do nothing to solve the problems that you listed in your piece, so I am not sure why you are interested in them. Your medication I assume involves processes from all around the world, so a local currency is not going to work there as it is little use to the pharmaceutical companies. Also. the government is not going to accept local currencies for whatever payments you are talking about.
I'm supportive of local currencies, and would be especially supportive if they were linked to a fully localised materials economy (which they aren't), but I do think the benefits are marginal and not getting to the root of the issue.
Ross Mountney comments ...
Thanks for your thought provoking article Mark. Good luck with the book. x
comments ...
Extreme is converting
the Earth's splendour and
bounty – its salmon, its
magnificent ancient redwoods,
its rolling hills, its generous
soil, its gushing rivers, its
gloriously Wild creatures – and
the pageantry of life into
meaningless numbers with no
intrinsic worth. Extreme is not
knowing our neighbours, let
alone feeling comfortable
enough to ask them for help.
Extreme is having a spare
room in your house while
others sleep on the street.
Extreme is spending our lives
doing jobs we hate, just so
that we can repay the bank
money that it created out of
thin air in the first instance.
Extreme is taking what was
freely given to us and then
charging another part of
Nature for it, only sharing that
which was gifted to us if we
receive something in return.
Extreme is walking towards
the precipice as we smugly
recycle our tetrapaks. Extreme
is letting it all unfold before
our eyes, as if somehow we
were not powerful enough to
stop it.
this is truly awful sorrowful and a great harm we are doing to ourselves without realising that we are doing it to ourselves.
and you give some genuine reasons as to why we don't act.
but to my mind , the main one is
we don't know, and if we do not know clearly what we do, we won't act!
why not, why don't We all know after all this time of environmentalists telling us.
perhaps it is because it is merely someone telling us.
it is in the interest of environmentalists to be high status environmentalists, to stay knowledgeable and so by doing that be warning us who listen on the fringes and we may hold them in high regard. but that knowledge needs to be mainstream, not the fringes.
It may just be that they keep their knowledge scarce because that pays them to. that they like the adoration. Perhaps they think we all can have massive heads that can take what they say, all those facts and figures and take it all in or parrot like repeat it and convince others. But I do not have that head, I wish I had, but I don't.
the information is too large too widespread for my little head to hold.( note their is nothing wrong with me having a little head, what's wrong is this societies current story telling us that little is bad, lot is good and that there is some zero mark of positive and negative, that small bad, large good, or less attractive ugly, and more attractive beautiful.)
therefore I need a good, a very good regularly updated list of the planetary damage I am doing, in order that I can make the most caring decisions with my consumption, and top of the list is as you say, of my most caring decisions would be local and total revolving of resource input and output.
We need this list of our damage to make the most caring decisions for change.
this is why people do not act.
they don't know.
anyone on here want to compile a regularly updated list, I would welcome it. it could be sold in wh smiths etc. available in the library, or free on the net, with your status being the pay back, if you want pay back as well as behavioral change. I shall get round to doing it but its hard for me to get on fast net, and am juggling many things.
additionally it is very good you and others have come up with a good mechanism that we can use for transition.
so please could you share what exactly and precisely is the POP, in detail please. if detail has been worked out beyond what you say about it, as it is pretty exciting, and I need it, as it is a pretty important thing.
in order that all can make a good transition, those with medical needs and vital needs especially.
thank-you for sharing your very important views.
(I don't wish for my words to come across as sounding demanding or negative.challenging, but look beyond them to my picture or the meaning Im trying to put accross. as one , we need to be, and support each other.)
comments ...
today, earlier, I tempted two pheasants who I give breakfast to, to walk up my legs to eat seed. there is a third who will do that who wasn't around,and he's a bit sacred of the other male, who initially surprised me with his friendliness.
it is the same as with cats and dogs, they come to love not only the food but the attention too.
but unlike the castrated cats and dogs these wild creatures who are not, I can assure you, imprinted, can live their own family lives.
it is good, I have friends like others have pets who also mither me through the day when I am outside too, and are glad when I come home, and they have freedom to live their family lives.
sweet.
we can enhance. wild and free. its possible.
just thought I'd share that.
I'm lonely. I am only me, but really I am we, I am more than the talents of only me. it is a world that does like hurt!. and because I am more than me, us, who have our talents different to one person, I can't wait for others who come to know this sharing ethos, to eventually share to be one with.
Wil Davies comments ...
Mark, interesting article..I am interested if, you, are still living moneyless or have/are using the "Moneyless Movement", to make money? If you are making money is for personal gain and satislaction or, do you donate the proceeds to a worthy cause? Wil
Anastasis Rvm comments ...
Very admirable effort and movement!Greetings from Greece!!
transition to Moneyless groups comments ...
just read an article in Permaculture magazine by Rebecca Hoskins of 'farm for a future' fame, and I sure know what she means when she says you feel like you want to fit in but when all around you everyone thinks your two straws short of crazy - that is hard. and it can certainly even go beyond that, they can hinder you.
and woe be tide you if you are radically different to the prevailing culture. your going to get it, your going to get it.
and the further away you are from that prevailing culture you are your really going to get it, and you couldn't get further away from it than what you talk about here. That is not repeat not what the rest of the culture wants. Because some want a whole lot of money, but most are always short of money. What they don't want, repeat don't want is none. They want money. (that ... . is the problem with money)
Mind you its different if your a real personable likeable admireable talent , someone like George Carlin or....... many others likeable like that who can overcome prejudices and conditioning and , like trend setters or leaders, can set trends.
If your not like that it sure makes it easier if you've got a community or some in your community like Rebecca says who support you.
Or may be at least friends who support you that you can travel to, to be with every now and again to recharge your batteries like she says she does.
So. where, where are all the people who know, know like Derrick Jenson knows, know what's what, know what's going on, who want out of it, want this new,but old gift culture, and want seriously to make the transition thats talked about here, where are they?
could any serious ones be on here?, here, where there is sense.
Are there any others that want to be transitioning to moneyless, not as skilled talented loners, but skill sharing as a group. Where are you, the others where are you others to be found.
Not the ones who want something handed to them on a plate, or who think there leaders will provide it, but the ones who want to get there, to create, to work together, to work to be a real community, a moneyless community and to increase the moneyless community the gift community.
So wheres all the people who want to do it?
are there.. any? here?
A tangent:
Seems to me,
There is the individual - Moneyless men/women.
There is the group - Moneyless group.
There is the commons - freeconomy community.
Perhaps an idea may be an area a space made on the freeconomy forum. with a title of something like Moneyless groups, or Transition to Moneyless Ecovillage Groups. for people who have the wish to transition to network and support each other and possibly it may be A way to help start Moneyless groups.
Hope comments ...
The original Moneyless Community are being threatened with extinction; please follow the link to lend them your support.
http://www.survivalinternational.org/awa
scarlett comments ...
This is definitely something that speaks to me powerfully and the only way of life that could truly make me happy, but how can we advocate a life that would only work for some? Lots of people struggle daily with the devastating effects of not being able to survive without money because the land is not fruitful and there is no space. I want to, but I find it difficult to fully believe that the best way to beat the system is to ignore it. For me and you it is a beautiful life, but people dying of poverty would laugh at us.
comments ...
sorry to come in before Mark, if he was going to address what you said, but, Scarlett in the general sense not in any minority sense people are dying of poverty because they haven't money. not because there is no abundance of land to access life. The 'land lord' is the land lord. Lord of the land, the earth.
How will they laugh? Won't they become more aware of their poverty really is, the poverty of money, and won't all of us be made more aware of the crime of this and these 'life lords' and their rent/tax.
When they see more and more others who work together to transition as groups to a better way, to create the change of not being land lords nor helping the land lords by having to work for the land lords life giving tokens, money any more.
nantiagr comments ...
great article can I copy paste just the article on my fb to make it easier for my friends to read , please ? credits on you of course
nantiagr comments ...
just 1 more comment. unconditional love is a strong expression to use, I think. of course the more u depend on money the less possible is that u ll receive or offer it. But even in a moneyless society one may never stop thinking of their own interest and or how u contribute to his (better) survival. So I feel it s more about who you are, your experiences and how u ve dealt with them rather than anything else, including money or absence of it. what do you think?
Marg comments ...
A resource based economy is the only way to go. The monetary system has never worked! Hear hear to living without money! Jaque Fresco who developed The Venus Project, has a wonderful outlook for our future. Bring it on!
Mark Boyle comments ...
@ nantiagr - of course, feel free to share, and no need for any crediting.
@ Hope - thank you for sharing that. I agree, please do support this campaign in whatever way you can:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/awa
Dusky comments ...
Well ive stopped using the telly, thats a start at least huh? peace and quiet in my life right now, Mark, can you sort out my login to the Forum, your automated messages whoever sends them does no more than provide a link and a new password which I still cannot use to log in...maybe we still need the website you have created to derive some good from the world we live in ?
long comment by comment again comments ...
there also needs to be a title and space on the freeconomy forum for freeconomy village, or Moneyless village, or gift economy village, or gift economy group, or freeconomy group, whatever is the best title for a section on the freeconomy forum for any freeconomy groups that are working together to as you say 'transition' to a moneyless group/society. There are 3 so far that I know, free and real appears to be so,garden of generations in Austria, and the vegan Welhealth project in North Wales looking for serious members, and there are also some other projects in Germany and Austria that appear to have sympathies with it or have part of their actual workings as the social inclusion of the gift, and a large squat in Barcelona into degrowth, and also I notice thanks to your Moneyless publicity and others Moneyless publicity overall there is a rising energy amongst existing permaculture projects.
As groups are so important they being group ego, co-op ego, gestalt ego, rather than individual persons ego, perhaps the blog too could be handed over to them, then people wouldn't be put off freeconomy by it being your personal group, it would then become ours . It would become our site. like freegle is, or freecycle is, all of our site. As inclusiveness means that everyone feels that they own it.
This is the meaning of the separation saying that you are so fond of quoting.
we need a rise in group transition.
ultimately Moneyless men and women are not relavent to a change. but have turned out to have been very good and relevant to initial publicity.
However groups of people working together to achieve those aims are relevant. as well as general gift economy freeconomy community projects in the community like little free libraries and really really free markets which appear to be increasing.
Moneyless groups ie those in transition are the most important thing of all, ie from Moneyless men to Moneyless many men, and they need to begin and increase and a section for them which is crucial in respect of your site here,appears to be missing on your freeconomy just for the love of it website.
what do you think of that?
It couldn't be, surely, that you are waiting to do this to give monopoly publicity for your own moneyless village. or whatever you intend. so that all must come under Mark Boyles village! surely not.
But even in that scenario if that's what it takes, and if that actually causes a change to happen then that's the important thing, - the change.
I have come to realise recently that there is individual ego and group ego. and further universal and probably cosmic ego. and that all three need to come in tune and song, amidst the variety, the salad.
I do feel deeply very deeply that it is group ownership group ego where we all individually feel important, feel ownership that is crucial.
(I comment anonymously because I neither want praise nor its opposite. Athough I have an I, I feel most of my I is we and bonding, and in my comment and other comments there is no malice ever intended, I have not the words and phrases quickly on hand to use to be as non violent and caring of people as I would like to be, unless I worked hard for what may take me a week or more to work to phrase what I say in as non violent way possible to be able to communicate in a loving bonding enhancing nurturing way which didn't cause offense. I try to do my best to communicate, and perhaps that is made a little harder by our language which is acculturated to be competitive, but there is no competitive harm intended, only an overall wish that we can help each other, work together and create the healthy nurturing of earth and all life , society. )
There is a Way comments ...
There appears to be a global trend brewing against the true devil of this world - the monetary system. I have my grain of knowledge to share on the issue, my specialty is spiritism but that too is against evil Mr. money. All are welcome to visit my webdoor at http://jack-lions.weebly.com/ The book 'My Origins' has a piece called How To Fix The World, in which I show how possible it can be to live without money as a nation and ultimately as a whole world. There is one main requirement: all able hands must work without pay.
comments ...
requirement to work!
when I dip my spoon into my breakfast I work my hand to put it to my mouth.
when I breathe I work my lungs and my heart.
when I eat I in out into the garden and work my limbs to gather them.
there is no requirement to work.
that's life, that's what we do, we live.
adam comments ...
Hi Mark, bit concerned by your hunter gathering paleolithic style sentence. Always respected you for your veganism. Are you going back on that? I don't hold with this 'wild' that is trendy right now espoused by the likes of Jenssen. I know the old soya argument and all that. Its speciesist to eat animals and a sustainable utopia based on the suffering of animals is not one I want to be part of. There is vegan permaculture out there, we are trying it. I accept its hard but the alternative seems a cop out to me.
Teresa comments ...
Living without money as an individual choice is a fine thing or setting up small communities to do the same is good too. My objections to the Transition Movement is that it is now international and has become far too big. I see the members as wanting to outlaw possessions such as the latest gadgets and cars so that they don't have to have them any more. They should start with themselves first rather than meeting in groups and working with local authorities to change society. How you are inside is reflected on the outside. It's like the peat farmer interviewed on 'Countryfile' recently who wanted to see peat farming made illegal so he doesn't have to sell peat but while it's still legal continues to do so as making and selling other forms of compost isn't so lucrative.
The Transition Movement is far too abstract and involves countless meetings, analysis and setting up of models before anything gets done. It can take years of 'mulling' before any Transition group is officially recognised.
Mark Boyle comments ...
@ Adam - if you wany me to clarify my position on my veganism etc do feel free to email on my email address in the contact section below. I'd write a reply here but it would be long and I've no idea if you'll even come back to read it, so going to save myself the time unless you do.
Cresta Huntingdon comments ...
My brother lent me your book to read last week, I have not even finished it yet and I am already inspired to try to change. This weekend I have bought a few (2nd hand) seaside foreging books, and I am looking forward to learning all about the food I can eat all around me. You are truely an inspirational person Mark. Thank you!
maytree comments ...
@Mark
You wrote:
@ Adam - if you wany me to clarify my position on my veganism etc do feel free to email on my email address in the contact section below. I'd write a reply here but it would be long and I've no idea if you'll even come back to read it, so going to save myself the time unless you do.
It would be interesting for others to read about this, please share it on the blog - I believe this would be in the spirit of your usual outlook, and I would definitely like to read about it.
Looking forward to it.
comments ...
He's already said it in this blog hasn't he. in effect.
this is how I understand what was said in the blog.
So for 195,000 years humans are conventionally thought to have existed as hunter gatherers and fitted and flowed cleanly as the animal we are with nature.
Our real physical needs which are our vital needs have always been easy to communily provide, food warmth water and air. (from a modern perpective the medicine which is real helpful is a great thing and probably a vitally worthwhile thing too and nearly on a par with needs)
So a little enhancement or change on the hunter gatherer, and still to flow with nature, is to live as the gatherer part more, and be vegan.
B12 vitamin is the only lack and this can be gotten from unwashed and lightly washed fruit and veg anyway. and from easy fermentation used in fortified foods as now. (and I'm told b12 is in ones nose too).
That would make the total sense to me as can be done easily and it is a good thing to let other sentient beings to live their whole lives.
but it would be a fair choice.
rancho comments ...
very interesting,I wanna have a try,but I don't know how to do,I need a companion like you
Sue comments ...
I am interested to learn how the animals fit into this system as they are the most abused and exploited species on the planet. There can only be true compassion for people and the planet when there is peace amongst all living things. Anyone who has ever seen a slaughter house or vivisection lab would realise that is no compassion or respect for animals. I just wondered if they would fair better with a cash less society.
Cláudia Kremer comments ...
I'm wondering here...I'd really like to meet you someday, Mr. Boyle, so that we could talk more, but...if I incorporate this wonderful lifestyle,how would I go from south Brazil to England without money??? it'd be such a challenge! Or maybe you could come to Brazil...have you ever been here??? it's such a beautiful country...this is an invitation, ok...
Congrats on your magnificent job, brave man...reading and watching about you has deeply changed my mind and my life...Thanks
I'll anxiously wait for your visit. xoxo
comments ...
Thank you for the blog, it is very inspiring. I aim to live without money one day. As soon as my youngest child is old enough to live without me. I would love to live in a alittle caravan like you and grow my own food - its my dream, I know its not going to be easy but I will do it as soon as I can.
Sharele comments ...
I am so happy that someone is talking about a place we are all headed, and don't know it. I went thru my life dreaming, and slaving, to become the milllionaire, as I tried every path that said, if I become thier slave and make them rich, I would be...HA.. In between, I lived the sacrifice myself for the future crowning of my grand inheritance of my labors...that never come...so I live in what is called proverty, (I believe it's call richness)but I am aware of all that is around me, and I find joy in others..but so many are gone..from themselves...to chase it.......so here I am...looking at all the empty homes..everywhere..I walk down the street and no one is around, I own it all...the parks...the trees... the beautiful sky..birds, animals..bugs..cute as can be...I live off a thou. a mo..and I have learned everything from friends which I call books,on subjects I wanted to know about, that others spent thier lifetime to gather, the experts..I also had grand parents, who taught me very simply to think for myself and figure things out, but get to the truth!!! I"m very happy, and I realize alot, I'm a seer... good things are getting better and better, yea!!!
kerry comments ...
Hello,
Thank you
it is beautiful what you are doing, living what you believe in, following your beliefs with sure passion and with such full hearted commitment. I feel that even if we abolished money human nature would find another medium to use for greed... we need to be conscious of what the driving force behind money is? Change starts within us. We could use money in very meaningful and important ways if only our greed, need for control so on, distorted views, would be worked upon. It starts with childhood.. educating our children differently so that they don't fall into the medias trappings, social conformity/conditioning, offering them unconditional nurturing love and patience, with total consciousness of the earth and all that it is and how they are all that it is.
just something i wanted to mention. Thank you.
Joe comments ...
I like the way you give up using oil and yet your writing this on a machine thats made from petroleum based products with machines that run on petroleum based products.... And not to mention the books you write are printed on paper which is made from trees... Which are sold for money...
UP YOUR INCOME QUICK! comments ...
Here is your chance before you, face to face! If you are not a “doubting Thomas”, then you can have that true information you need to make money online – investing just $10 and making %50 - $250 daily into your LIBERTY R. ACCOUNT.
REMEMBER: Quitters never win and winners never quit.
This investment is what is known as LIBERTY RES. INVESTMENT. Before you continue, I will suggest that you HIGHLIGHT and SAVE this entire post in word or Notepad on your computer so you can come back to it later and read through the program very well so that you understand the way the system works. In my own explanation this is a Liberty Reserve system that yields the members money through compounding process.
This is true. With just $10 you will be making unlimited cash into your Liberty Reserve Account (LRA). This is a true and legitimate means to earn a living online. Know this: this investment was also reviewed by DATELINE, 20/20, AND OPRAH WINFREY and clarified in her show, or you may have read about it in the Wall Street Journal, the internet or from friends. If not, then count yourself fortunate, as you will clearly know and use it to change your level. It is below revealed to you in step-by-step detail.
This investment pattern had been before , but was with PayPal. But due to PayPal restriction for some countries to get an account with PayPal, Liberty Reserve is been used as it is SAFE and SECURE as PayPal, but without restriction.
This is not a secret anymore as many people have been exposed and have taken a chance with this investment and have never regretted it.
Don’t get bored here. I am straightaway giving you the knowledge that will set you free from that financial tightness, you have now found that means to offset that debt and live well earning money online. Remember, it is not for the lazy, but know this: YOU HAVE TO BE HARDWORKING AND HONEST. These are what you need:
REQUIREMENTS:
-A Valid E-mail address.
-And a PC with Internet connection.
-A Liberty Reserve account funded with $10 (N/B: Because Liberty Reserve wil charge you 1% of $10, so you will need to fund your account with $11 to have about $10.94 in your account after the transfer.)
I know you challenge will be the 3rd point and that is what I will show you step by step and then…
If you do not have a L R Account, I will advise you to read from step 1 to the end. But if you have an account with Liberty Reserve go straight to step 6-8 and following the instructions carefully.
STEP 1: WHAT IS LIBERTY RESERVE
Liberty Reserve Account is one of the best 3-currency account for online transactions anywhere in the world, it is also one of the largest and safest payment processor and money transfer system for investing, purchasing, making and receiving payments where ever you are. Liberty Reserve serves millions since 2002. The great thing about Liberty Reserve is that it is worldwide. If you own an account with Liberty Reserve you know what I am talking about. It can be funded and you can receive money and you can withdraw your money into your local bank account through an Exchanger anywhere around the world.
STEP 2: HOW TO OPEN A LIBERTY RESERVE ACCOUNT
To open a Liberty Reserve Account is free. Just copy and paste this link in a web browser to open your free Liberty Reserve Account: libertyreserve dot com/?ref=U5403156 Sign Up: Free + $0.5 if you are referred. So register with the link to be credited with %0.5 to your Liberty Reserve account when you are done signing up. Or better still, just type in the liberty reserve dot com in the address link. Then you click on ‘Create An Account’, and follow instructions to open an account. I will advise you to maintain true details of yourself when filling on the necessary form online.
N/B: Take time to write down your account number, password, login pin and master key. Also, take note of your Security Question and your answer. You will often always need this information.
STEP 3: HOW TO FUND YOUR LR ACCOUNT
You can fund your Liberty Reserve account by bank wires, credit cards, Western Union, mailed in money orders and checks, local cash deposits with banks from anywhere you are, with the aid of an Exchanger close to you. Search for ‘LR exchanger in your country’s name’ e.g. ‘liberty reserve exchangers in India’. If you are in Nigeria, you can check up with epaynigeria DOT com or epaynigeria DOT net. Otherwise, you can use epaymonster DOT com. When you have seen the Exchangers that are in your country go to their website. Sign up to their website if you have to sign up to use their service and know how they will help you to fund your Liberty R account. But if you can’t find anywhere on their website to sign up look for and click on buy Liberty Reserve to fund your Liberty Reserve account, then follow their instructions. They will tell you the amount per Dollar or euro or Goldgram. Then you can send them the money required to fund your Liberty Reserve account by whichever means they accept payment and your Liberty Reserve account will be funded by the Exchanger. So supply them your Liberty Reserve Account number only and amount of Dollars, Euro, or Goldgram you have paid for. This is safe. Note here, that Dollar amount exchange is preferred.
STEP 4: HOW TO WITHDRAW FROM YOUR LR ACCOUNT INTO YOUR LOCAL BANK ACCOUNT:
You can withdraw by visiting the exchanger that funded your account or anyone closer to you and your money will be paid in physical cash promptly to your bank account. Note there is an exchanger(s) for a country. When you have found the Exchanger that is in your country go to their website and click on ‘Sell Liberty’ or Buy/Sell LR (This time they will pay you into your bank account you provide to the Exchanger) to withdraw your money to physical cash into your bank account.
STEP 5: HOW TO TRANSFER MONEY FROM YOUR ACCOUNT TO ANOTHER LIBERTY RESERVE ACCOUNT:
Go to liberty reserve DOT com. Click on ‘Login’ (i.e., you already have an account) into your LR account, Click on ACCESS MAIN ACOUNT with the login pin, at the main account section, click on transfer at the top of the window and complete the form where to write the LR amount in two digit, i.e. 05 for $5, click on preview and then confirm your payment and send it. If there are many payments to be made click on transfer on the main account section and still transfer money one after the other, you need to confirm that you are transferring money and so on. Note you cannot transfer money to two accounts simultaneously. It is one after the other.
STEP 6: HOW TO MAKE MONEY INTO YOUR LIBERTY RESERVE ACCOUNT ENDLESSY WITH JUST $10.
N/B: HARDOWRK AND HONESTY SURELY PAYS.
There are 2 Liberty Reserve accounts tagged accounts 1 and 2 respectively, you will transfer 5 US Dollars into each account, through your LR account. Go back to STEP 5 to see how to transfer money into another LR account. Below are the LR account numbers you are to transfer $5 each:
#1) U5403516 (Mikephilips4002@gmail.com)
#2) U9320468 (kennys_babe_92@yahoo.com)
STEP 7: NOTIFY ACCOUNT #1 AND #2 BIA THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESSES OF YOUR PAYMENTS:
Send an email to the 1rst Liberty Reserve account email address. Just write ‘PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR LIST’ as your subject then send. Also send email to the 2nd Liberty Reserve account email address. Just write ‘I HAVE JOINED’ then send.
N/B: You need to send message to the above LR account’s Email Address so that your LR account number will be added to the LR Earning Database so your LR account will be credited when other people transfer $5 to your LR account Like I said this is a LR system that yields the members money through compounding process. You cannot cheat the program. First account and second account holder will confirm your transfer of $5 and Email message, so that your LR account number will be added to the MAILING LIST to receive payment and people transfer $5 to your LR account.
Now, when you have successfully sent the $5 each to the accounts and have notify them via email, erase the first account number and email address from the list in STEP 6, thus the list will go higher (LR account number 2 will become number 1, etc. ) And put the number of your Liberty Reserve account and email address in line 2 on this STEP 7. Like this:
#1) U9320468 (kennys_babe_92@yahoo.com)
#2) (Your LR account number and email address here.)
STEP 89: HOW TO EARN INTYOUR LIBERTY R. ACCOUNT:
I have made this quite simple to understand for you. Open your notepad or WordPad where you have saved this note and edit where you will put your Liberty Reserve account number and email address in STEP 6 AND STEP 7. Note that your Liberty Reserve account number will be on #2 in STEP 6 and #1 in STEP 7. This is where your account will yield you money each time people transfer $5 to your account and notify you via your email address. Make all the necessary changes, but try to preserve the main idea. Put this article to at least 10 forums and Newsgroup. Remember the more forums you send this article to, the higher will be your income and your income depends on your directly. This si what I mean by the harder you work the higher you earn. Start promoting your edited article by posting this article on forums, your blocks, Facebook, etc. Like I said this investment is universal and there are no restrictions to any country. As far as you know how to check for an Exchanger in your country.
There are many people looking for legitimate means of earning money on the internet and this has been proven by Oprah Winfrey to be the best and legitimate. Simply follow the instructions above in 2 to 3 weeks and you will have as much as $2,000 dollars in your LR account or even more. Most people respond to this program because of the low investment ($10 dollars) and high profit potential. There is no limit to the to the income you can generate from this (you can do it over and over.) If you follow the instructions, you will reach thousands of people! Honesty, Faith and Good luck to you.
EXPLANATION OF WHY IT WORKS SO WELL: Time, honesty, patience, faith integrity, dedication and hard work make this system work also tem work, and accountability are the key features, which make this program so effective. This program is designed to make money via internet quickly and honestly. It is not quite new, yet already proved to be most effective. With many people now using it, and with so many more still to see it. This program is very powerful, a real money generator on the web, you are guaranteed financial success with this opportunity because of the method used to confirm the honesty of each participant. (READ STEP 7)
WHAT IF SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT HONEST?:
No, that cannot happen. The method of accountability used keeps everyone honest. We all get our money by building an easy and valuable MAILING LIST. Too many programs before this one had no fail-safe mechanism for protecting the honest participants from those who put their names on a list without sending any money. That is what causes such programs to ultimately fail. With this program, it is IMPOSSILBE FOR SUCH CHEATING TO HAPPEN. (READ STEP 7 AGAIN) Very inexpensive to participate in ($10), just compare it to the value of lottery tickets, where making money is next to impossible. Think of the power of the program running internationally. The power of the internet works also with team work making this dream come true. The more exposure this article gets to people the money funds we all generate. Read step 8 on how to expose this article more effectively.
Be sure to copy this page entirely and omit nothing except to edit your LR account number and email address on Step 6 & 7. Ready step 8 to know how to edit your LR account number and email address. Members have been reporting an INCREDIBLE 75% returns from this prospect.
