Could You Survive Without Money? Meet The Guy Who Does - And is Happier Than He has Ever been

reply to post by FritosBBQTwist


It cant be done in America without breaking a plethora of laws. I'm not looking to break any laws and a move to a foreign country is a little more involved than "sell everything and go." Which isnt to say that preperations arent being made "just in case."

Those beans and rice he eats, those cloths he wears, at some point they cost someone money and resources.

Oh course hes happy, hes a Tick going along for the ride.

Lets say for arguments sake, I want his little patch of paradise and I am bigger and tougher then he is. That would be a nice reality check.

Has anyone here tried dumpster diving? Dumpsters, at least here in NY (I'm on Long Island, very close to the city), dumpsters are extremely putrid harbingers of pestilence and sickness.

If I only had no other choice I might dig my food out of a dumpster as a last resort and if I couldn't grow simple veggies, fish or hunt. What a great way to land yourself into an emergency room, and quite a dire scenario when you are no where near a hospital = not a smart thing to do!

If you are starving and need food, instead of getting it out of the dumpster like some vermin low life, try asking the people who are dumping the food to perhaps save it for you! People will do things like that for you.

Dumpster food may be contaminated with bacteria, listeria, botulinum, etc. etc. In addition, You have no idea what people might do to food before throwing it into a dumpster.

When you're not near an emergency room, that's not smart. Is it so hard to grow bean sprouts? Or other hardy/simple veggies? Fishing isn't hard.

This guy is a bum, exactly like those in NY city, what is he offering society? Is he productive?

He's just taking stuff like a rat. Anyone here can do what he does, very easily, nothing to be proud of.

[edit on 23-7-2009 by Electro38]

Originally posted by Helmkat
Those beans and rice he eats, those cloths he wears, at some point they cost someone money and resources.

Oh course hes happy, hes a Tick going along for the ride.

Lets say for arguments sake, I want his little patch of paradise and I am bigger and tougher then he is. That would be a nice reality check.

Not only that, but the land he lives on and all of the things he forages for are ours, (if you live in the USA), the taxes of people who are still living on the grid and paying through the nose for taxes own those things and the land.

He's living off of us.

I didn't here anything about growing his own food, or offering something back to the society that allows him to live that way.

There was something mentioned, or alluded to, about him being some prophet? What baloney. He's a rat.

Build a shelter and get your ass off of the floor, grow some food that you can give back to some of the people helping you. Try some fishing, or replenishing what you take from the forest and write about that, educate people of your experiences. Not your experiences of living like a rat.



[edit on 23-7-2009 by Electro38]

Cool, that is exactly what I want for a bug out spot. I do think I'll bring a spare pair of boots, after seeing his. I hope he doesnt run out of candles, as well.

It goes to show we can survive off the land if needed and be self sufficient.

Those who know how will be less dependant on the government when SHTF.

Most people don't realize that most of their medical problems come from the poison of the modern world (toxic waste, carcinogens etc). If you lived naturally off the land you wouldn't have a lot of todays ailments.

And I hate to sound cold, but in the wild its survival of the fittest. So if your too weak to survive, you don't.

Live in the wild? I go for a walk around my neighborhood and end up scratching insect bites for three weeks.

No thanks. I'll stack up the bills and go bankrupt like GM, Chrysler, the banks and finance companies....then ask for a bailout. If I don't get bailed out, too bad so sad.

At least I will have learned to live like a King, and starting over will be much easier due to the practice and knowing the routine.

Originally posted by John Matrix
Live in the wild? I go for a walk around my neighborhood and end up scratching insect bites for three weeks.

No thanks. I'll stack up the bills and go bankrupt like GM, Chrysler, the banks and finance companies....then ask for a bailout. If I don't get bailed out, too bad so sad.

At least I will have learned to live like a King, and starting over will be much easier due to the practice and knowing the routine.

I think I agree. It's all an illusion anyway. Will living and surviving in the woods really but much different than being a productive member of a society? Either way you have to give something back.

Being enormously in dept and living like a wage slave isn't good, but there are options without leaving society to live like a cave rat. At least we here in the grid are constantly giving back to our fellow man, even if we don't see it.

Originally posted by BlackOps719
reply to post by jackflap

 

I think it would be very hard at first, but in a different way.

Me personally, I am growing weary of this rat race thing. All of our time is consumed with accumulating money so that we can spend it on a bunch of stuff that doesn't really make us happy.

Well, there is a spectrum that exists. And you are right in so much that we can get wrapped around the axle with debt.

However I think that it's more of an integrative thing. It's a union of the opposites if you will, it's not either or, it's both and.

You *can* live a life debt free and still use cash to support the life you want. But in order to do that you have to live your own life and now what others tell you to live. You don't *have* to have a mortgage. You don't *have* to chase material items with your cash. You can use your cash to build the life you so desire... but it requires one huge thing... your own sense of authority.

We no longer live in the "modern world". I keep hearing people talk about that, and it's just patently false. The modern world was still a world where the vast majority of people in a community believed the same way. That doesn't exist any more. We are smack in the middle of the post-modern world which is why we are waking up to the fallacies of these narratives that have been *given* to us and many of us, like this guy in the article, are starting to write our own narratives.

You know what would make me truly happy? To not have a mortgage bill or an electric bill or an auto payment to worry about next month. To not worry about how I will pay my "taxes" to these gargoyles who think they have the authority to extort from me that which i have honestly earned.

Although I agree that income tax is a pisser.. and I don't like it much at all (prefer a sales tax model), there are a lot of things I do enjoy about the post-modern life we live in.

I enjoy being able to go to the local store and get whatever I want. I enjoy not having to defend myself against invading barbarians at every turn. And many other things... I even enjoy chatting with you on ATS.

What your paragraph above shows though to me is more of a lack of meaning. The more meaning one has in their life the less anything bothers them because they are preoccupied with the meaning.

And to that end I do believe that our current world is lacking seriously in the ability o show us how to seek true meaning in our life. Once again, meaning is handed to us in commercials, which are not driven by a truth in our social fabric which we can attain, but a sense of lack.

It would be like getting out of jail, being able to shuck it all and just survive by what I am able to do for myself. Not only would I personally be happier with no bills to pay in my mailboax, but I think I would possibly be happier with no mailbox at all

Well then pay off your mortgage! :-)

It's a constant battle between what we Want and what we Will. If you follow your WILL, it doesn't matter what you have to deal with, you will enjoy it. If you don't follow your WILL, but instead follow your WANT, you will have misery no matter how free of debt you are.

Im sure that is an insane concept and probably sounds off to some, but to me it sounds great. Just a pipe dream, obviously. Doesn't hurt to imagine though.



Edit-spelling

[edit on 7/22/09 by BlackOps719]

It doesn't sound off at all to me. I've been there, and lived that. I get my joy from not defining what a good existence is, but by living my life in accordance with my principles and understanding that change happens. It can be tough and at other times it can be exhilarating...

I'd recommend you go camping for a week, enjoy the heck out of it, and then go home and take a shower and enjoy that too... if you have to go back and forth.. and if the debt is too high, change your reality to make it go away...

Be your own God....

Thanks for the post!

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I think you hit home with the WANT and WILL description.

The "will" will always be there no matter what the circumstances...it seems to me that living in an advanced society gives me a lot more cushion to follow that will than if I were in the wilderness.

If people think that the people "back" in the day that lived off the land were happier as a whole, they are sadly mistaken.

Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. See which life you like better.

Like others said...the guy in the OP is just a tick.

What's the point? If anyone is suggesting that this is a "better" way to live, I guess you are saying quite literally, living as cavemen is the way to go. I don't think that's such a great idea, personally. I'd be bored, smelly, lacking medical care, at the whim of nature, among other things. No thank you. "Society" does bring "jobs" and work and money and bills, but it also brings a better quality of life.

You really believe that a dude living in a cave has a better quality of life as even say, a 22 yo living in a small apartment in the city? I don't. There is more to life than that. There is the arts, there is sports and entertainment, there are discoveries that help people with disabilities... I'm sure he and others don't think about that. YOU are healthy.. so living in a cave is FINE!

If he wants to put a glorified title on being a bum, so be it. He is a great philosopher eh? Not even the great philosophers in Greece thought that was a great way to live.

Finally, if you live within your means (which almost no one does), then money isn't a problem. You don't have credit card debt. You have a job (i.e. you are not a bum), you pay for your food, living quarters, entertainment, and are not weighed down with a lot of debt. You can live in a sparse home, take public transportation, and enjoy many of his um... bummy interests, without fully turning into a 21st century caveman.

squalor is a solution now? lol

cool, but i wouldnt want to live my entire life that way. Ill bet he gets sick of it eventually.

im willing to bet most people enjoy their air conditioned summers and heated winters...

but their definitely are valuable lessons to learn from here. material things are not the be all end all of life.

What a great story, Thank you for sharing. I have always been interested in people who take up this type of lifestyle... If only I had the courage and skills to do it myself.

Originally posted by thedonjuan
Most people don't realize that most of their medical problems come from the poison of the modern world (toxic waste, carcinogens etc). If you lived naturally off the land you wouldn't have a lot of todays ailments.

And I hate to sound cold, but in the wild its survival of the fittest. So if your too weak to survive, you don't.

How many here have had to live off the land, I have as I have stated before on the forum, it's hard work,

I lived with out modern conveniences, no electricity or running water, no car or phone, eating fish and game.

I wouldn't mind going back to it, self sufficiency.


[edit on 033131p://bThursday2009 by Stormdancer777]

I am doing a cheating type version of this...... I AM SOOOOOOO close to free already! I am almost there actually.

I traded my old van for a camper, and just fixed it all up.

Got a wind turbine for powering the computer and fridge and heat etc....

We own our house, but spend 99% of our time out here now.

We are renting out our house to friends and just have the basement suite, but don't even really need it anymore...

I will add all the details in my thread when I start it, but I feel soooo free and happier than heck!

We LOVE it!

I do have a 4 1/2 year old though, so we are going to still have to go to town everyday for his school etc, but every day we are closer and closer to complete freedom, and school etc is just for fun for him, I am teaching him everything he needs to know to live, like growing plants etc...

We are having an absolute blast, still living a biut in both worlds, but just our obligations.

Last year we didn't have the camper yet but still stayed inthe wilderness for 4 moths straight.

this year I have my travelling greenhouse (the camper) to go along with us though, and we couldn'tbe happier..... we dread going in the house, we only use it for bathing etc when we aren't swimming in the lake all day etc......

anyhoo, I'll go start that thread, and YES! We could do it in style to an EXTENT, this way..... we couldn't BE much hapier!

reply to post by BlackOps719


Sounds great until he get's sick, needs to see a doctor, can't afford to because he doesn't have insurance, oh and can't get there without a car.

And since he dumpster dives, he's not really living money free, he's living off other peoples money. It makes him, at least in part, a mooch.

Originally posted by Republican08
Is he married?

Does he have kids?

If yes to either one, how do they feel about this.

If no, I figure either no longer.

Wait till he gets cancer, an infectious disease, or any other thing, then it won't be so well

Sure this 'evolved' form of life is not so peachy but it has it's ups and downs.

Talk about a worry wart. He probably wont get any of that stuff because he is not eating processed poisoned food and living in a brainwashed environment.

Suelo's been here for three years, and it smells like it.

Me thinks he has no wife.

Those poor, poor mountain goats.

[edit on 22-7-2009 by Republican08]

[edit on 22-7-2009 by Republican08]

That's the perfect life. That how everyone should live. Food is free, no taxes, no laws, you just live free. You choose how you want to live, you don't have some big man telling you what to do. To me thats what freedom is all about. Sadly enough his cave is probably going to be taxed.

I think the idea would be great. I did it once in my early 20's for a while. I'm married with 3 small kids now, and I've taught them all how to, in this part of the world, if we had to. But modern conveniences are too tantalizing. And if ALL of us tried it, being social animals...we'd wind up in the same situation we are in now. The more of us that congregate, the more we would face "civilization" pains. In my opinion.