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

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

#41

Post by nir »

seldo wrote: post #29
nir wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"NB: you live in a fucking cave. Forgive me if this doesn't sound like the future of mankind" Forgive me if I say this sounds like a Reddit comment :) Why so negative? He doesn't harm or tries to convert. There is a difference between him and most homeless in that he actually chose this lifestyle, is able to quit it if he wants, and seems to be generally pretty happy with it.

It did occur to me as I typed it that it would get downmodded for the belligerent phrasing, but I was post-gym and blood sugar was low, which makes me grumpy. I think the reason it irritates me is, as others have mentioned, that he doesn't really live without money. He just lives without his own money, and relies on the kindness of strangers to provide him with things he needs. He's not self-sufficient and he's not b…

From the article it seems he largely lives on stuff that he finds in nature or dumpsters. Occasionally he may be invited to a meal. Obviously he wouldn't have canned spam without a modern economy, but he would probably have a lot more wildlife to hunt & fish so it balances out.

The media is full of stories of the hyper-consuming celebs and millionaires, so it's nice to see a story on someone from the other extreme once in a while.

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

#42

Post by mikeytown2 »

pj wrote: post #13
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").

Right! It's impossible to own land in America. You merely rent it from the government. But also, he uses the library for internet access. I wonder if he considers that "government dole."

Not entirely true, If you own patented land then I believe that is tax free forever; at least under current US law.

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

#43

Post by Xichekolas »

dasil003 wrote: post #30
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).

Sure, but the emergent effects of money on society--especially with computerized banking--are quite a bit more significant than the fundamental innovation. Computers are merely for shuffling 1s and 0s around.

Well yeah. My comment was originally much longer, pointing out some of the things that money enabled.

But I was responding to his view that 'money is an illusion'. I was trying to point out that it's not an 'illusion' (whatever that means), and we didn't just make it up for fun or so some people could be rich and others poor. It serves a fundamentally valuable purpose.

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

#44

Post by korch »

I highly respect what this guy is doing, even though I don't yet have the guts to live like this myself. As Tyler Durden said, "the things you own end up owning you." The best I can do is smugly re-read Thoreau while sitting in a Starbucks and twittering from my iPhone in debt up to my eyeballs.

What I appreciate most about guys like this is how they make us face the mirror. Like fish unaware of the water in which they swim, American culture is so hyper-materialist that great numbers of us cannot even conceive of this guy's reasoning. Commercial interests can't have good, little fear-driven, obedient consumers dropping off the grid now can they?

The spiritual dimension to his lifestyle choice also deserves consideration. The article says he lived in a Buddhist monastery in Asia for several years up until 1999. He's obviously not even comparable to the typical crazy, drug-addled de-humanized homeless people we encounter in our day to day lives in our own urban zoo cages.

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

#45

Post by mahmud »

sfphotoarts wrote: post #37
ars wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

No, homeless people usually don't want a life without property; at least not the sane ones who aren't on the run from the law. Homeless people do have property of some sort; they push around a shopping cart full of their items and they usually have "spots" where they sleep at night. Even under bridges, tunnels, and underground homeless areas; every one of them has a little corridor to himself.

P.S. I am deliberately ignoring the much large population of working, "normal", homeless people. See "Persuit of Happyness".

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

#46

Post by Arun2009 »

Reminded me a little of Diogenes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope).

As Buddha said, suffering ends when our craving for material things ends. We don't have to be as extremely hardcore as the dude above, but following this philosophy in a limited pragmatic manner I think can be very liberating.

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

#47

Post by Xichekolas »

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 sorry, but in what way does the current financial turmoil even approach the Great Depression?

As much as the media likes to say 'worst X since Great Depression', that doesn't mean X is actually anywhere near as bad as the Great Depression. And before you start digging up obscure values of X that actually are statistically worse in some way, point me to the 25% unemployment and millions of middle class folk turning into migrant workers and living in their cars.

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

#48

Post by rjett »

Interesting article but it would have been even more interesting if the author had chosen to go more in depth about his daily activities and how Suelo copes with loneliness and boredom. IMO, these problems would be much more difficult than the physical hardships he faces.

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

#50

Post by zackattack »

rjett wrote: post #48

Interesting article but it would have been even more interesting if the author had chosen to go more in depth about his daily activities and how Suelo copes with loneliness and boredom. IMO, these problems would be much more difficult than the physical hardships he faces.

Loneliness and boredom are not real issues. They're issues fabricated by the mind. With presence, they disappear. That's the whole point of his lifestyle: presence. The reason he dislikes money is because money indicates a distaste of the present and an obsession with the future.

I recommend reading Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now for more information.

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