Comments on: Could You Live Without Money?

By: Rose

Rose — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:02:57 +0000

very intelligent!!!

By: gregory

gregory — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:45:12 +0000

Excellent article, found it just by searching the phrase “living without money”. Have you heard about all the alternative trading and “local currency” systems springing up? Chekc out Thomas H Greco’s book calld “Money: Understanding and creating alternatives to legal tender”, 2001. Also google “LETS systems” which is Local Exchange and Trading System. It details exactly how to set up a trading system that is not quite a pure gift economy, but close. I think most people Americans that is, would not react well to an intentional community (we are too hyper-individualist), but they could be very attracted to a LETS type economy. There is a lot going on in this field, Im trying to spread the word about it. Check it out, you’ll be glad you did.

By: James Whiteman

James Whiteman — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:33:34 +0000

World be better peace without money, credit cards, taxes; people need a place to sleep, home, shelter, food, transportation, work would be recreation, not slavery, poverty, war, we should not wait til heaven on earth to live without money.

By: sok try

sok try — Fri, 05 May 2006 09:05:43 +0000

Couldn’t i start a life without money now ?please tell me more.

By: Dave Pollard

Dave Pollard — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 03:40:41 +0000

Catnmus: Most of the equity is due to appreciation in value, not savings. Interesting that you think the immediate outcome of the end of wage slavery would be a huge jump in family size — I’m glad I don’t see that. As for the next generation, it would work the way it does in Europe now — population is stable, so the next generation would stay in the community place — ZPG.Janene: Agreed — this has to happen before the housing price bubble bursts, or it will be too late. Mind you, then maybe you won’t need the $1.2M for the community property, maybe $200k will do it. And you’re right about property taxes, except that I do find that for retired couples I know, property tax is now their single biggest annual expense!

By: Janene

Janene — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 16:37:25 +0000

Wow… I can’t believe how many people are apparently ignorant of both the housing market and the systemic nature of the modern economy.Good Article Dave!I would question how many people in the US currently have that much equity in thier homes — not because it is fundamentally unrealistic (anyone with a brain puts down a minimum of 20% and housing has been going up in value by as much as 20% per year in some markets) but unfortunately lender policies are leading people to not only buy with less down, but also to refinance based upon exaggerated home value increases. So we find an absurd number of people refinancing thier homes at 110% of value in order to go on vacation…On property taxes… A typical, moderate farm in the US incurs taxes of maybe 5K per year. Anyone that is unable to make that much a year with farm land and free time, simply isn’t trying. (A farmstand selling produce in the summer months would more than suffice) Add to that, people are more productive when they are working at something that they WANT to do. Give them 1/3 of thier life back (rather than working apointless job) and amazing things will happen!Oh, and by the way… land and raw materials have been free for most of our existance. They were so up until 300 years ago in North America… and only stopped being so everywhere 7500 years ago….Janene

By: Catnmus

Catnmus — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 05:09:43 +0000

I find it unrealistic to assume that all these 10 families would have $120,000 in “equity”. How exactly would they get that? If you assume as you do that shelter costs $12,000 per year, and add that to the $2,000 in net savings per year, they’d have to be living with mommy and daddy for 8.5 years before they’d have that kind of money. And the second generation – those 8 children you mentioned – where would they live when they grow up? Plus, there are still – in this society – a little thing called property taxes, that ain’t going away any time soon. I also doubt that 1.2 mill could purchase not only shelter but enough arable land and other raw materials – wood for replacing the roof, for example – for subsistence farming and recreation for 25 people over a long term. Also, what do you think will be a favorite activity of these folks? I’m guessing Sex. And birth control pills and condoms don’t grow on trees. So pretty soon I think those 8 kids might become 30 kids!So, I think a plan like this might work for a single generation, as long as the kids didn’t plan to stay with them forever, or have kids of their own until after their parents die, or if they can come up with a plan to get $120,000 equity of their own. Or if the rest of society collapsed such that land and raw materials were free again, the way they were 30 thousand years ago.

By: Dave Pollard

Dave Pollard — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 14:55:39 +0000

OK, let me try this again. The reason housing is shown as ‘variable’ is that if you took your equity and invested it in a place in the country or a small town, you would no longer have mortgage or rent to pay. Education could be by home-schooling, and gifts hand-made (or provided as free services) with the time freed up from wage slavery. Philosopher Poet, you’re absolutely right. It will take time to develop ways to let people self-select their communities. I’m an optimist about lazy people, however — I think if they find people they really love and start making a living with them they’ll discover that what they thought was laziness was just lack of motivation. But I may be too idealistic about this. Hugues: I think ICs might be like the Amish in a way, but I understand Amish communities are quite hierarchical, rigid in their thinking, intolerant of dissent and somewhat cultish (they have truly disturbing ideas about animals, and, I am told, operate horrific puppy farms). I would hope that modern ICs could avoid these unpleasant and (from what Diana Leafe Christian’s research has shown, unnecessary) qualities of close community. Ken — of course food safety was poor during the industrial robber baron era, what’s your point? And yes it was expensive then, because the massive subsidies of today did not exist. Community-based agriculture will take more of people’s time to produce, but so what? The modern economies are false, hidden by $150B/year of taxpayer subsidies to Big Agriculture oligopoly. Thanks to all for your comments and links. If you want to read my other posts on Intentional Community just put that phrase in the Google box in my right sidebar. Yeah, I know, I need to get my Table of Contents up to date — it has a whole section on the subject, but is out of date.

By: Zephyr

Zephyr — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 05:40:32 +0000

Or, you can simply use

between paragraphs.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:50:31 +0000

Ian, use

for line breaks.