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

I came across this story and wanted to share it with those who may also find it fascinating. It is written about a man who has a college degree, who had a comfy job and a nice home, and was miserable.

After trading in the modern life he now lives entirely off the grid and has made shelter inside of a mountain cave in Utah, surviving with no money by eating wild plants, dumpster diving and bathing in a river. And he says that he has never been more relieved or happy in his life.

Is this fella right? Would we all be a bit happier and better off if we could trade in the rat race and the materilistic money based life full of obligations and debts in exchange for a hard and rugged but free and fulfilling life away from the traps of modern existence?

I placed this in the philosophy category as opposed to survival because I believe this to be more of a spiritual and philosophical choice than I do anything else. I give him credit for living life on his own terms. Personally, I don't believe man was meant to sit in a cubicle or watch tv 12 hrs a day and I believe modern life is killing our souls and denying our true potential as a species.

Man is meant to live.



Full Article

Article - Men.style.com

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.

His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo's blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he's both. "When I lived with money, I was always lacking," he writes. "Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present."

On a warm day in early spring, I clamber along a set of red-rock cliffs to the mouth of his cave, where I find a note signed with a smiley face: CHRIS, FEEL FREE TO USE ANYTHING, EAT ANYTHING (NOTHING HERE IS MINE). From the outside, the place looks like a hollowed teardrop, about the size of an Amtrak bathroom, with enough space for a few pots that hang from the ceiling, a stove under a stone eave, big buckets full of beans and rice, a bed of blankets in the dirt, and not much else. Suelo's been here for three years, and it smells like it.

more......

reply to post by BlackOps719


Good post and thank you for sharing! I would like to give it a shot but I don't know if I'd have what it takes when winter rolled around. How bad would it be gathering enough wood to burn and stay warm while choking yourself to death in a cave? Maybe I'm just being a wimp.

This is a great story but for me personally I wouldnt be happier. I would probably be miserable. I can do some outside living but not permanently. It would be very pleasant but only for a while for me, after a while I would need my old life back..
For me I dont need lots of money to be happy, actually I lack money due to lay offs and my bank account getting drained. I have 0 debt and pay cash for everything. I am quite happy and I dont mind sitting in a cubicle for 12 hours if I had to, someone needs the work I am doing on the other end and to me that is satisfying.

S&F

I think we all would be happier without the modern world..

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.

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]

reply to post by earth2


I enjoy the modern world. How else would i chat with you ppl here on ATS? And how un modern are u talking about?

-Shadow

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.

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.

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

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]

Originally posted by ShadowLife
reply to post by earth2

 

I enjoy the modern world. How else would i chat with you ppl here on ATS? And how un modern are u talking about?

-Shadow

There are lots of things I would miss (probably toilet paper the most) ....but the rewards would possibly be worth the sacrifices.

I think after 6 months or so you would not even miss 90% of the things you feel right now you would never be able to live without.

I'm sure it IS a wonderful way to live for anyone prepared for such a decision. I would be right there with him if I didn't feel like I have obligations to family and friends first, if it wouldn't let them down. I love parking my car somewhere, wandering out into the wilderness and losing myself for a day in basic things like that, that would simply be a way of life if I didn't have all this other mess to return to.

Living like that really would take an exceptional mind though. Or just being prepared for it, living alongside nature for an extended time already I guess. But what I'm getting at is that most city-dwellers would never be able to comprehend such a thing. So far removed are they from nature.

It's a nice story. If only it was a situation available to everyone. But, heh reduce the population to 5 million or so people and we will probably all be able to live in a cave. I read a story how a family who was so concerned about the world, the parents bought a big piece of land, how nice to be able to do this, and they built a cabin and they grew their own garden and hunted, and all that pioneer stuff. This was recently here in Kentucky. And they are heros to the hippies. Yet, they heat their house and cook their food burning wood. Uh.......that ain't very environmentally friendly is it?
And now the family is off the grid. Sounds good, coming from yuppies who escaped the rat race, but, uh, what about their kids? No money. No nothing. Do they expect their kids to be Daniel Boones? You gotta have money. No school. No nothing. You gotta have something to barter with. What can I say? I could live like this. I am old. And I have some income. But for my kids and grandkids? Get in the real world. Yeah, I teach them the old ways. Just so they know.

i hate to be the ATS rent a cop (since i have no authority what so ever here )

but i believe this topic is already being discussed here

interesting idea tho, i don't think i could do it.



[edit on 7/23/2009 by Alaskan Man]

The money system today is altered and mutated into a bad form, mainly by people like you and their psychological systems of what it should be.

You can't survive off money, not in this type of civilization.

You want to trade beans for rice, great.

But as one member quite a time ago said.

Well what if I want a lamborghini, would you accept my offer of 1,000,000,000,000 to the tenth power of apples?

Originally posted by kyred
And now the family is off the grid. Sounds good, coming from yuppies who escaped the rat race, but, uh, what about their kids? No money. No nothing.

I think the point WAS to get away from money. Because money is, you know, the root of all evil? You can't say they have "nothing," though, unless money really IS all that matters to you.

You gotta have money. No school. No nothing.

That's the other real reason most people couldn't do it, besides not having the mind for it. Pretty much you can't accept the personal responsibility. You would have to teach yourself, etc. All that is dreadful, I know. It's personal responsibility.

You people talk a lot about your kids and grandkids, but the way you're used to living isn't sustainable and all you're really giving them is a mess that they will never be able to fix without going back to roots in a lot of ways. We have food growing all around us that nobody eats, instead we ship all our food in from halfway across the world every day and pack ourselves in cities that are a million people per square mile. That is what you're really giving your kids and not only does it not make sense, but it's extremely dangerous as I'm sure we'll see soon enough. It is not sustainable in the long-term.

I think it would very difficult at times, but I'm sure that my husband and I could do it. He's had survival training and is one smart cookie. I'm smart too, but I'm more "book smart" if you know what I mean, but I pick things up fast and I'm good at doing a lot of hard, physical work.

I don't know about dealing with extremely cold weather though. That would be the hardest part for me to deal with. If I could stay warm enough and had a water source nearby, that would make things easier.

Injuries and illness would pose a problem. I know emergency rooms would probably treat me without insurance; however, if I lived in a remote place with no source of transportation, it wouldn't be easy to get to a hospital.

I find the concept of living without money interesting and fascinating, and despite how hard it would be, I have this feeling I could do it.

My grandparents did it and they lived into their 80's, but they worked themselves to the bone.

They grew tobacco and traded it, along with a certain clear liquid substance that rhymes with noonshine, they had hogs to kill in winter and chickens to lays eggs, a fish pond stocked up and around 80 acres of land to hunt. They also grew corn and peas and potatos and had apple trees and strawberry patches.

They also had 12 children, for what would ultimatley amount to cheap labor.

Not quite the same as living in a cave, but they didn't have electricity or running water until the late 50's. They still used money to a small extent as they went to town two or three times a year, but they were as close to completely free as one can get while still maintaining a living.

Better times than what I live in I would estimate




Edit - awful spelling

[edit on 7/23/09 by BlackOps719]

Reply to post by cornblossom

Before I had kids, a few years ago I actually considered doing this. I think living off the land, and being with nature would be great. It would also be nice to not have to worry about money.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

It's a truly charming story of how to live off the grid.

First, you set up housekeeping in a cave on land that you don't own, get your clothing and food by picking through others' trash, and then blog about your independent existence using the free computers at the local public library (all paid for by someone else via tax dollars). He's not 'off the grid' at all....he's living off the handouts and generous natures of others. Personally, I'm not impressed.

i myself would die if i did that. i need my pills. i have cardio myapathy. without going to town to get my pills, i would soon die, of lack of oxegen. my valve does not work right, i get blow by. people with no phisical problems can do this. but sooner of later he will have to come to town for something. medicine, hospitalization, disease, and so on. not all people can do this.

reply to post by pudgeego



Or let nature take it's course..

I read the article earlier, ... and even though he's educated and does this for philosophical reasons, ..... isn't he just a glorified bum ??
How can living in these conditions add to the quality of life ??? he lives alone, ... in a cave and everything associated with that, wandering the streets digging through garbage.
You dont have to be an accomplished college grad to do this, ..... just Bats**t crazy. I only wonder why he would do this, ... maybe he's just a hermit, who doesnt enjoy company or responsibility.
In the future, when kids see him walking around town, they wont say " there's my spiritual hero" .... they'll say, " There goes ole sawtooth Danny, he's crazy as s**t"

My favourite line from the article was " Suello's been here for 3 years, and it smells like it "