I love reading stories about real people, and today I read this story about a man named Daniel Suelo who “quit [money] like a bad drug habit” nine years ago. He does live in a cave, and his lifestyle does seem somewhat crazy by the norms of society, but some of the things he believes about money are things I have noticed or thought about before.
On Suelo’s website he makes a point that money is imaginary, and that the power of money only becomes real if both the creditor and the debtor both believe in it. The example he uses is that if you give a bushman in the jungle some German marks then it is nothing but colored paper to the bushman. That money has no meaning to the bushman. This is definitely true when you think about it. Why is the United States able to literally summon trillions of dollars out of thin air? It is because the United States’ creditors have faith in the word of the U.S. government. Why did California have to cut spending? It is because creditors no longer believed in California. Money is only real because people believe in the system and participate in it. If you bestow an account with a trillion dollars to an extraterrestrial who places no value in it then it is meaningless to that alien.
Another point on Suelo’s site is that in reality goods and services can be exchanged without money. One example he had was of a German woman named Heidemarie Schwermer who has lived without money for about 12 years. She does this by bartering within exchange circles and she is the subject of an upcoming documentary appropriately titled Living Without Money. This is not a new idea since people have been exchanging goods and services for thousands of years. Money just became a global system of accounting that made these exchanges less personal. It is certainly more efficient to swipe a credit card to buy a sack of rice rather than trading a bag of almonds or something else. However, for those without money it may make more sense to barter.
Finally, another thing that made Suelo swear off money is the recurring theme of “mo’ money, mo’ problems”. The example he gave was that when he worked with Ecuadorean tribespeople he saw how money made them buy useless things. The tribespeople also became less healthy as they spent more because they started to buy things like soda, MSG, and refined sugar. Suelo said that he charted their development and “it looked like money was impoverishing them”. I have certainly seen how money could impoverish people. Some people forget the real things in their lives such as family and friends and pursue money relentlessly because they never feel like they have enough. The fact is that if they never feel like they have enough then it does not matter how much money they earn, because they will never be satisfied.
Anyway, I think that these people demonstrate that it is definitely possible to live without money, but the hard part is to unplug yourself from what is considered normal. I am definitely not cut out to live in a cave, but I have to admit that I am a little envious of those living abundantly without money. For now I am very thankful for the lot I have been given, and I will just have to do my best in this world that is controlled by this “imaginary” system. I have to admit that this whole financial meltdown made me less fearful of losing money, because life can and will go on without it.
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2 comments ↓
Call me cynical but you can’t get rid of money
We’d have to go back to a barter system.
Yes, it’s true. Money and currency is all in our heads. But it’s how the world is regulated properly to make sure that one apple is worth $0.30 cents instead of 2 pigs.
We HAVE to use money to have a proper, even playing field, especially between countries now that we’re more global.
Can you imagine the States saying: Ok Canada, we owe you 50 million pigs. Where do you want them?
Instead of $25MM ?
You might be interested in the site sindinero.org that I wrote about here: Getting by without money in Spain. The word “sindinero” means “without money.” It’s a frugality site, kind of like Wise Bread, but its focus is on getting by without money, rather than just living large on a small budget.
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