Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does. • Hacker News Board

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#31

Post by dasil003 » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 3:54 AM UTC

jerf wrote: post #14

pj wrote: post #6

It very well could be the knowledge he has gained while living without money that will go toward educating masses of people out of work in our increasingly struggling economy moving forward. More people are losing jobs, homes, credit. Debt is increasing. How many people will know how to correctly identify edible cacti? I was thinking of my grandmother who survived the great depression. She has so much knowledge up th…

"I can go out into the woods and find an animal and kill it and skin it and cook it and eat it." What animals? If society collapses to that point, deer will be hunted to extinction in a matter of months, if not weeks, with smaller critters probably not getting hunted to extinction after that, but certainly to the point you won't find them readily anymore. There's still too many people with the skill to do that for yo…

Depends what your particular survival skills are, how fast society collapses, and where you are when it happens.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#32

Post by philwelch » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 3:57 AM UTC

pj wrote: post #12

Xichekolas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Countness numbers of the x-generation, y-generation, and even the baby boomers are going to die, simply because they do not know how to survive without money and a job and a grocery store." What? The only reason people would need to be able to hunt their own food in our society is if that society totally and utterly collapsed. And not just a collapse of the government... I'm talking mass-fatality pandemic, nuclear…

Not where I live. 5% of my state suffers from "food insecurity" which means they dont know where their next meal is coming from. I went on a field trip as a child through a state park and the game ranger warned us all, he said, "Don't poach deer kids. If you are hungry and your parents want to poach deer out of season, tell them to call me and we'll help." He wasn't saying this as a joke. Many families here do procur…

Hunting and fishing can also, sometimes, give you better quality of food than you could otherwise afford. I always grew up with smoked salmon on the cheap because we caught it ourselves and own a smoker. Fishing isn't a cheap hobby but it sure gets you a lot of fish out of the deal--often more than we could eat ourselves. And the fish are a lot fresher than anything you could buy.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#33

Post by mjgoins » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:00 AM UTC

erlanger wrote: post #11

If everyone did this, he wouldn't have a thing to eat. I'm not knocking it, but it's something to think about. But that brings us to a more important point: Why does this guy have to forage to survive without money? Shouldn't he be able to save up, buy a few acres and grow his own resources? Nope, because of the absurdity known as the property tax (er, I mean "protection racket").

If everyone in the world was an investment banker, no one would have anything to eat. Ditto hackers, unless they were hackers with an eye towards agriculture.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#34

Post by Readmore » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:17 AM UTC

Xichekolas wrote: post #8

pj wrote: post #6

It very well could be the knowledge he has gained while living without money that will go toward educating masses of people out of work in our increasingly struggling economy moving forward. More people are losing jobs, homes, credit. Debt is increasing. How many people will know how to correctly identify edible cacti? I was thinking of my grandmother who survived the great depression. She has so much knowledge up th…

> "Countness numbers of the x-generation, y-generation, and even the baby boomers are going to die, simply because they do not know how to survive without money and a job and a grocery store." What? The only reason people would need to be able to hunt their own food in our society is if that society totally and utterly collapsed. And not just a collapse of the government... I'm talking mass-fatality pandemic, nuclear…

+1 for zombies

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#35

Post by sfphotoarts » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:21 AM UTC

pj wrote: post #12

Xichekolas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Countness numbers of the x-generation, y-generation, and even the baby boomers are going to die, simply because they do not know how to survive without money and a job and a grocery store." What? The only reason people would need to be able to hunt their own food in our society is if that society totally and utterly collapsed. And not just a collapse of the government... I'm talking mass-fatality pandemic, nuclear…

Not where I live. 5% of my state suffers from "food insecurity" which means they dont know where their next meal is coming from. I went on a field trip as a child through a state park and the game ranger warned us all, he said, "Don't poach deer kids. If you are hungry and your parents want to poach deer out of season, tell them to call me and we'll help." He wasn't saying this as a joke. Many families here do procur…

"I asked my grandmother what her thoughts about the current financial situation, remember, she survived the great depression and she said, "I haven't seen anything like this.""

I'm curious what, exactly your grandmother is seeing now that is worse than the great depression?

Or quite possibly it's not worse than you think at all. I don't think you can speak for all with your notions of faith and belief. Economics doesn't need you to believe in it or have any faith in it. Its grounded in real and concrete math. Just because greed and poor practitioners of the science caused some instability in the system doesn't mean we need to resort to such outdated notions as faith.

"it was cheap because it was rotten." - that doesn't make sense. I presume when the woman at the check out told them to find another bag it was the same price. Selling rotten food for a discount price will get Wal-mart into court.

Enough of this survivalist sensationalism please.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#36

Post by tokenadult » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:23 AM UTC

pj wrote: post #12

Xichekolas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Countness numbers of the x-generation, y-generation, and even the baby boomers are going to die, simply because they do not know how to survive without money and a job and a grocery store." What? The only reason people would need to be able to hunt their own food in our society is if that society totally and utterly collapsed. And not just a collapse of the government... I'm talking mass-fatality pandemic, nuclear…

Not where I live. 5% of my state suffers from "food insecurity" which means they dont know where their next meal is coming from. I went on a field trip as a child through a state park and the game ranger warned us all, he said, "Don't poach deer kids. If you are hungry and your parents want to poach deer out of season, tell them to call me and we'll help." He wasn't saying this as a joke. Many families here do procur…

It's worse than we realize. Our faith in the system has collapsed.

What do you mean "we"? I think the current housing bubble collapse may end up being something bad like Japan's Lost Decade spread all over the world, but it will be nothing like a return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle anywhere in North America.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#37

Post by sfphotoarts » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:23 AM UTC

ars wrote: post #27

mahmud wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need kids to survive like that, most adults I know can do it all on their own~

Very funny :) However, could he still do it if he had kids? The article seems to suggest this is a good way to live, but if you can't live this way, and have kids too, then meh. He's not just an ordinary homeless guy - he wants a life without property (not money, any property), i.e. he's homeless guy with a principle. So I evaluate the principle: is it a good one? So far, it seems no, it's not. If he could have kids,…

"He's not just an ordinary homeless guy - he wants a life without property"

Isn't that what homeless means?

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#38

Post by NonEUCitizen » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:26 AM UTC

Xichekolas wrote: post #9

Money is merely a means to decouple the promise of payback from the promiser. Without money, you have to trust Joe to help you can tomatoes next fall since you helped him plow his field. With money, Joe can pay you to plow his field, and you can pay Sally to help you can tomatoes (because Joe moved to another town).

but with money, in each instance, the recipient has to pay 1/3 or so to the government.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#39

Post by madmanslitany » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:31 AM UTC

mjgoins wrote: post #33

erlanger wrote: post #11

If everyone did this, he wouldn't have a thing to eat. I'm not knocking it, but it's something to think about. But that brings us to a more important point: Why does this guy have to forage to survive without money? Shouldn't he be able to save up, buy a few acres and grow his own resources? Nope, because of the absurdity known as the property tax (er, I mean "protection racket").

If everyone in the world was an investment banker, no one would have anything to eat. Ditto hackers, unless they were hackers with an eye towards agriculture.

I don't think this is valid in the context of what the parent was saying about this guy; hackers and investment bankers are specialized professions which contribute to society in their own specialized way and specialization makes life better for everyone overall by enabling civilization.

The subject of the article is hardly a specialized professional and while it's minimized to some extent, he even admits he sometimes mooches off of friends for meals and is basically a scavenger. He's contributing nothing to society and leeching off of its resources despite being able bodied and intelligent.

Some might argue that his commentary on culture is useful in an artistic sense by pointing out flaws in our society, but there are better ways to do this without being a bum living in a cave. I don't like getting worked up over things in a "Something is wrong on the internet!" sense, but articles about guys like this make me kind of angry. There's nothing noble, nothing ideal here. This guy isn't worth praising.

Re: Could you Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does.

#40

Post by akeefer » Wed, Jul 22, 2009, 4:40 AM UTC

erlanger wrote: post #11

If everyone did this, he wouldn't have a thing to eat. I'm not knocking it, but it's something to think about. But that brings us to a more important point: Why does this guy have to forage to survive without money? Shouldn't he be able to save up, buy a few acres and grow his own resources? Nope, because of the absurdity known as the property tax (er, I mean "protection racket").

The first principle you mention is, more or less, Kant's idea of the categorical imperative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative)

Perhaps not the end-all be-all of moral reasoning, but certainly very influential (and there's a mammoth body of analysis and discussion around it), and personally I find that it's always a worthwhile perspective to consider.