The Moneyless Man Read Online Free
Author: Mark Boyle
which, however ethical it claims to be, nonetheless pursues infinite economic growth on a finite planet. I’m tired of seeing families and lands destroyed in the Middle East so that we in the West can fuel our lives on cheap energy. And I want to do something about it. I want community, not conflict; I want friendship, not fighting. I want to see people make peace with the planet, and with ourselves and all the other species that inhabit it.
HOW TO BECOME MONEYLESS
It’s one thing to intellectualize the reasons why we should give up money, but it’s quite a challenge to try and do it. In 2007, I decided to give it a shot. I sold my beloved houseboat, moored in Bristol Harbour, and used the cash to set up a project called the ‘Freeconomy Community’. Some might, understandably, call me a hypocrite for using money in an attempt to accelerate its demise. However, I see money in the same way as I see oil: we should be using what we have to build sustainable infrastructures for the future.
I had experience of local trading schemes, such as LETS and Timebanks, in which people exchanged skills and time rather than money. Although I thought these schemes were a really positive alternative to the global monetary system, they still focused on exchange, rather than unconditional giving. My theory was that if you were part of a big enough community, with a diverse enough range of skills, you could help somebody without worrying about what that person could do for you in return. Security would lie in the fact that the community would be there to help any member whenever they needed it. The person whom you help may never help you, and a different person may help you though you have never helped them. The difference between this and the normal monetary system is that one uses figures on a computer screen to calculate our level of security, while the other sees security as the bonds we inevitably build with people when we do something just for the love of it. One system builds stronger communities, the other builds higher fences.
I used the profits from the sale of the boat to pay a web developer to work with me on building an online infrastructure through which people could help each other, not for profit but simply for the love of it. The over-riding aim was for the websiteto act as a facilitator in enabling people to help each other for free, but how best to do this was up for some debate. In the end, I decided that sharing was at its heart; not only did sharing mean that fewer of the world’s resources would be used but it would also be a very devious way of bringing people together. Have you ever liked anyone
less
for sharing something with you? Exactly. Sharing builds bonds, reduces fear, and makes people feel better about the world they live in. Peace will only come when all the little interactions that occur around the world every day become more harmonious. The whole is made up of the detail.
The Freeconomy Community became a skill, tool, and space-sharing website, designed to bring people together and allow them to teach each other new skills, pool resources, and eventually be enabled to live a life in which money wasn’t the primary factor in everything they did. I called the site ‘justfortheloveofit.org’, which I felt summed up the spirit of the project. The early success of the website astounded me. The concept behind it was as old as the hills, but I suppose its presence on the internet gave it another dimension. Within a year, journalists were using the term ‘Freeconomy’ to describe the entire moneyless movement.
‘BE THE CHANGE’
By early 2008, I felt I was getting closer to understanding what change I actually wanted to be. Having set up a project that successfully enabled people to start making the transition to sharing rather than selling their skills, I decided that if I wanted the world to place less emphasis on money, a decent way to start would be for me to try to live without it, to see
HOW TO BECOME MONEYLESS
It’s one thing to intellectualize the reasons why we should give up money, but it’s quite a challenge to try and do it. In 2007, I decided to give it a shot. I sold my beloved houseboat, moored in Bristol Harbour, and used the cash to set up a project called the ‘Freeconomy Community’. Some might, understandably, call me a hypocrite for using money in an attempt to accelerate its demise. However, I see money in the same way as I see oil: we should be using what we have to build sustainable infrastructures for the future.
I had experience of local trading schemes, such as LETS and Timebanks, in which people exchanged skills and time rather than money. Although I thought these schemes were a really positive alternative to the global monetary system, they still focused on exchange, rather than unconditional giving. My theory was that if you were part of a big enough community, with a diverse enough range of skills, you could help somebody without worrying about what that person could do for you in return. Security would lie in the fact that the community would be there to help any member whenever they needed it. The person whom you help may never help you, and a different person may help you though you have never helped them. The difference between this and the normal monetary system is that one uses figures on a computer screen to calculate our level of security, while the other sees security as the bonds we inevitably build with people when we do something just for the love of it. One system builds stronger communities, the other builds higher fences.
I used the profits from the sale of the boat to pay a web developer to work with me on building an online infrastructure through which people could help each other, not for profit but simply for the love of it. The over-riding aim was for the websiteto act as a facilitator in enabling people to help each other for free, but how best to do this was up for some debate. In the end, I decided that sharing was at its heart; not only did sharing mean that fewer of the world’s resources would be used but it would also be a very devious way of bringing people together. Have you ever liked anyone
less
for sharing something with you? Exactly. Sharing builds bonds, reduces fear, and makes people feel better about the world they live in. Peace will only come when all the little interactions that occur around the world every day become more harmonious. The whole is made up of the detail.
The Freeconomy Community became a skill, tool, and space-sharing website, designed to bring people together and allow them to teach each other new skills, pool resources, and eventually be enabled to live a life in which money wasn’t the primary factor in everything they did. I called the site ‘justfortheloveofit.org’, which I felt summed up the spirit of the project. The early success of the website astounded me. The concept behind it was as old as the hills, but I suppose its presence on the internet gave it another dimension. Within a year, journalists were using the term ‘Freeconomy’ to describe the entire moneyless movement.
‘BE THE CHANGE’
By early 2008, I felt I was getting closer to understanding what change I actually wanted to be. Having set up a project that successfully enabled people to start making the transition to sharing rather than selling their skills, I decided that if I wanted the world to place less emphasis on money, a decent way to start would be for me to try to live without it, to see
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