Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Deep Thirteen]

There's a term for these types: Freegens.

[guava]

Meet the Man Who Lives on Zero Dollars
In Utah, a modern-day caveman has lived for the better part of a decade on zero dollars a day.

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/career-and-money/200907/meet-the-man-who-lives-on-zero-dollars

Daniel Suelo lives in a cave. Unlike the average American�wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office�he isn't worried about the economic crisis. That's because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.

[dunc180]

A little off-topic, but this thread made me think of Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. It's one of my favourite Orwell books and a great insight into a time and place.

[djsmnc]

[BoholDiver]

I could go a year with only buying food, water, transport to work, and any items imperative to doing my job.

I bet my bank account would fatten up a lot.

[djsmnc]

Yeah, but your love life would certainly become quite stagnant for awhile, unless you have a partner who's in on it with you!

As I mentioned, best to be a monk and do it and say you dabbled in a "cultural" or "spiritual" experience. Otherwise you're just one of "those people"

[VanIslander]

next: life with no sex!

[eljuero]

[captain kirk]

I've got a paperback called Possum Living by a young woman in the southern U.S. who lived on no money for years living with her Dad in the house they owned. Bartered with friends, foraged in wildlots, got into making crafts. Freaky, sure.

[BoholDiver]

Some clinics and stuff give free condoms. That would solve one problem.

Yes, not with a materialistic girlfriend.

Money is a funny thing. The more I scrimp and save, the less I want.

[Mr. BlackCat]

I couldn't read the articles listed here, but one of my uni classes was about alternative lifestyles including sexual, political, economical, ethical and social. Anyway, we spent a bit of time talking about these people, the no-money people. I have a few criticisms.

-These people get off on condemning the 'material' lifestyle, meanwhile they use the benefits they got in that lifestyle to live they way they do now. Many of these people have high education and contacts in the 'material' world, hence the book deals.

-While they condemn the material world, they depend on it completely. The only difference being that I earn my dinner while they eat what's leftover. That's fine if they're ok with that, but they don't get to call me materialistic for eating steak while still sucking the meat off the bone. Now apply that to housing, clothing, electronics and everything else.

-Health care and other social services. That's great these people believe they can live without money, but that's not really true. They depend on substidized public transit, waste disposal, health care, police, laws in general and a whole lot of other things being paid for by the rest of us.

-These people have no interest in helping or protecting those actually forced to live this way. I understand those that really don't have the education, resources, time or skills to form a community, but these tourists are exploiting the truly impoverished to make a name for themselves. They can, and do, leave at any time and return to their real world with book deals and mild fame while nothing is accomplished for the poor. In fact, it goes to reinforce the idea that poverty is a choice and actually not that bad. It's like visiting Haiti, taking an afternoon trip into town from the resort and claiming you went 'local' and it really wasn't that bad.

Really, I have no problem with anyway people want to live their lives. Just stop shoving it in our faces between book deals and photo ops. It reminds me of a friend of mine who, after finding out that I got a job at a Tim Hortons to put myself through Uni, called me a 'corporate slave'. He then went out and cashed the cheque he just received from his grandmother.

[madoka]

"Mommy I'm a parasite. Aren't you proud?"

[cdninkorea]

To Mr. Blackcat: Amen, brother!

[conrad2]

Our socities really do need to re examine our materialism. We do produce and buy a lot of useless junk. Our homes are filled with it. And we do waste a lot of food.

But brushing your teeth with ground up fish bones you found on the rivers edge is just too extreme. Toothpaste is not a crime.

[conrad2]

Unless these people are willing to walk naked deep into the forest, find a cave, and never return, they need to STFU. The girl in the story had a cell phone for crying out loud.