"I live without cash – and I manage just fine "

[Laurentius]

No not me, (mores the pity) but this guy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...without-money?

Armed with a caravan, solar laptop and toothpaste made from washed-up cuttlefish bones, Mark Boyle gave up using cash

[vizsla]

question is were does he go when he gets ill

[Shewie]

"I can live without cash - and I manage just fine with my laptop, my caravan and a pal with an organic farm"

[Robbi]

oh you synic sir !

[British Red]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

[tomongoose]

Well said red, I saw a programme about some vicar a few years ago who was trying to live without money, it basically involved scabbing off other people as well

[NikolaTesla]

In the story I read that

(I once wiped my **** with a story about myself)

Couldn't stop laughing.

[Adze]

question is were does he go when he gets ill

Maybe he doesn't. If that's him in the picture, he looks young enough not to have had that particular worry yet. Now at 41, I was in rude good health until I hit 38, whereupon I popped a disc in my lower spine which paralysed me from the waist down. Without the timely intervention of an extremely expensive MRI scanner, several ambulances, a microdiscectomy and partial laminectomy performed with the delicate operating touch of a certain Mr. Gurusingh (thank you again sir, you are a marvel!) I wouldn't be able to walk (amongst other things) to this day.

It's not just me either... my Father visited his GP once for a sinus infection, the GP's parting comment was "See you in another 26 years!" which, sadly, was not very prophetic. At 62 he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and he died from an infectious 'complication' to the reversal surgery to remove tumors which he picked up in hospital. He was 66.

We've all got it coming, one way or another, and modern medicine is financially supported by the financial culture we've built over the last few hundred years.

Personally... I'd rather not go back to 18th C medicine thanks.

[Bluebs4]

Yep it's like rolling your own fags with my baccie LOL

[vizsla]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

exactly fully fledged sponger

[sandbender]

This is the same chap who announced to the world that he was going to walk from England to India, again without money. He made it as far as Calais where he gave up because nobody spoke English.

You can look through an earlier thread about him here.

He has now rebranded himself as the 'moneyless man'. I wonder if the Guardian paid for his article with a box of veg?

[vizsla]

This is the same chap who announced to the world that he was going to walk from England to India, again without money. He made it as far as Calais where he gave up because nobody spoke English.

You can look through an earlier thread about him here.

He has now rebranded himself as the 'moneyless man'. I wonder if the Guardian paid for his article with a box of veg?

If only he had some money to buy a phrase book

[jackcbr]

I can survive without cash - i just use plastic, paypal or online banking and the internet

[demographic]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

Pretty much that^

[rg598]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

Very well put.

[blacktimberwolf]

I live with cash but I can't afford a caravan & a solar laptop.

[Dreadhead]

live without cash? = join a cult

[blacktimberwolf]

Cuttlefish for toothpaste !, there's something fishy about this guy.




Sorry couldn't resist

[hermitical]

pity that article is 2 1/2 years old

[The Cumbrian]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

Well said Red.

I wonder if the media would be interested in a story about someone who paid into the system for years, then bought their own place to be self reliant in, and still pays taxes?

Unfortunately hard work and self reliance aren't as headline grabbing as ridiculous claims made by spongers.

[m.durston]

2 1/2 years! he's probably ditched the caravan and is living under a tarp made from discarded potato peelings.

[xylaria]

This guy has been discused before. Most people agree that sponging isnt much a of survival effort.

However the concept of living on little expenditure is interesting. The man of the house has a book "make the most of your deer", it is interesting because once you take an animals life the book shows you not to waste a single resource you have. We do waste a lot, and we are beginning to face a time when we need to learn not to waste anything that is at our disposal. Our granparents cooked in dripping they saved, and we drizzle imported olive oil, and bin the fat on our bacon go figure. They could do a chicken on sunday and still be eating the stock on thursday.

There is certainly a way of living where you can WOOF for a roof and foraging/skip delve for food. It is OK for the young and the healthy. There is something liberating about realising money isnt that important in the pursuit of happiness.

[Laurentius]

pity that article is 2 1/2 years old

I didn't realise that the article was out of date, It was a link that someone posted to me and I though it of interest.

[British Red]

There is certainly a way of living where you can WOOF for a roof and foraging/skip delve for food. It is OK for the young and the healthy. There is something liberating about realising money isnt that important in the pursuit of happiness.

Same answer. So long as they don't expect to have access to the health service, police, roads etc. fine.

If they expect to use things that hard working people pay for without contibuting - they are parasites on society

a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parasite

Red

[Laurentius]

This guy has been discused before. Most people agree that sponging isnt much a of survival effort.

However the concept of living on little expenditure is interesting. The man of the house has a book "make the most of your deer", it is interesting because once you take an animals life the book shows you not to waste a single resource you have. We do waste a lot, and we are beginning to face a time when we need to learn not to waste anything that is at our disposal. Our granparents cooked in dripping they saved, and we drizzle imported olive oil, and bin the fat on our bacon go figure. They could do a chicken on sunday and still be eating the stock on thursday.

There is certainly a way of living where you can WOOF for a roof and foraging/skip delve for food. It is OK for the young and the healthy. There is something liberating about realising money isnt that important in the pursuit of happiness.

My brother is an example of the scavenger/skip diver par excellence but he works for his living and pays his taxes. He just makes use of the appalling and profligate waste of others. He doesn't drive a car, and is in a lot of ways more true to the spirit of "bushcraft" than I am, at least he can skin a rabbit anyway.

[British Red]

My brother is an example of the scavenger/skip diver par excellence but he works for his living and pays his taxes.

No problem with that - once you pay tax - how you choose your life should be your own business and no-one elses! Good on him

[Vyvsdad]

I lived without cash or money of any sort for just over a year, mainly by WOOFing, working for board and lodging through things like Helpex and Diggers and Dreamers, and by Bushcrafting. All I could carry was all that I had. It was lovely and it took me all over the country.
Putting aside the odd bit of poaching, tresspass and wildcamping I don't think I did any harm, although I did technically break the law.
Of course there were times when it was hard, but isn't that the way in the 'normal' world anyhow? I would still be doing it now but I met a girl, fell in love and am now married with a child, and back working and paying tax. Luckily during my time I wasn't ill nor did I break any bones, and had no reason to go to a doctor, but I'm not sure if my conscience could live with free health care whilst paying no tax.

But what I don't understand is what the people on this thread have against Freegans.
I know some very prominent (at least in the media) freegans and they are by no means 'spongers'. They all earn money, they all pay tax, they all contribute society. The whole point of freegans and freeganism (a horrible word, I grant you) is to draw attention the the wastefulness of western society. What could anyone possibly object to in the practice of raising awareness in western civilisations general wastefulness. Just read 'Waste: uncovering the global food scandal' by Tristram Stuart for a brief introduction

I do object to people (like the guy in the article) writing articles about it and being more than slightly snug and holier-than-thou about it, and then selling a piece about it to a rag. If you're going to do it, just do it. Plenty of other people are to and they don't make a song and dance about it.

[Randall]

He sponges of those who day pay tax. Same as he does when he uses the police, or the roads, or all manner of tax funded services.

I am very, very, into self reliance, but I have a deep seated moral objection to sponging off others. So part of "self reliance" for us, morally is to ensure that we earn enough in the Winter to pay in more than we take out. This type of thinking is basically human parasitism - the same as "freegans". It relies on the contributions of others - it cannot be a true lifestyle available to all.

Red

Meh, he's not taking the p!ss, it's not thievery where he sets out with the sole aim of taking what isn't his. He lives a quiet life away from the hustle and bustle and I'm sure most here can appreciate the beauty of that.

We should be happy for the guy.

Regarding the taxes - there are far more reliable criteria that will say whether someone's a good citizen. Like helping your neighbours.. pitching in where you see an extra hand is needed. These things are all taken into account in any decent society - sadly not ours.

Lets work on the bigger issues and leave the little guy alone.

[Randall]

Same answer. So long as they don't expect to have access to the health service, police, roads etc. fine.

If they expect to use things that hard working people pay for without contibuting - they are parasites on society

What this implies is that the hard working tax payer really doesn't like his work. I suspect this guy doesn't expect to have access to roads, health service and police but merely uses them because they're there, and perhaps feels grateful and priviliged when he is served by someone who's enthusiastic and happy in their job. He doesn't have to contribute to it to use it. And neither do you or I. Hell, lets do things we want to do and not complain about those who choose to do something else - providing they're not setting things on fire, etc

[Harvestman]

Got to say on the whole I agree with Red, but every time I hear taxes mentioned an old quote of Robert Heinlein comes to mind...

"Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed"