Happiness: 69 Year-Old Women Has Not Used Money In 15 Years

The article does seem to romanticize the idea,but none the less kudos to her.To bad the barter and trade system wasn't more well known.
Please mods move if not in right category

Heidemarie’s incredible story began 22 years ago, when she, a middle-aged secondary school teacher emerging from a difficult marriage, took her two children and moved to the city of Dortmund, in Germany’s Ruhr area. One of the first things she noticed was the large number of homeless people, and this shocked her so much that she decided to actually do something about it. She had always believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful, so she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take).

This thread, from last month...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This comment sums up the REALITY of her lifestyle...
This person is not living without money.
She still utilizes everything that is available in her community that was paid for with money such as roads, buildings, clothing etc that was paid for with other people's money.

reply to post by alfa1


Utilizing what others have created using money is not the same as utililizing money. That's like saying because we utilize Nazi scientific findings (many of which were discovered thanks to Jewish scientists who were forced to do research) we utilize slave labor.

Originally posted by alfa1
This thread, from last month...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This comment sums up the REALITY of her lifestyle...
This person is not living without money.
She still utilizes everything that is available in her community that was paid for with money such as roads, buildings, clothing etc that was paid for with other people's money.

So what it is a start. Someone has got to set an example and she is a good example as she is not living in squalor.

reply to post by hawkiye


Growing her own food, supplying her own shelter, making her own clothes and medicinal remedies would be a start. She is still living in a world with money and trading goods she might not have bought with money but others have. Self reliance is one of the first steps of living without money. She may not be buying clothes or paying property taxes but she isn't self reliant from what I can see.

Tell me' if you did'nt use money for 15 years would you feel rich or poor?.... and why?

Originally posted by topherman420
reply to post by hawkiye

 

Growing her own food, supplying her own shelter, making her own clothes and medicinal remedies would be a start.

Well that depends n what the goal is here, if the goal is to be entirely self sufficient and not have to rely on other people for your own wellbeing, then you are right. But that is not the case here. The goal is to not be dependant on money, which this woman has proven that she can do.

She is still living in a world with money and trading goods she might not have bought with money but others have. Self reliance is one of the first steps of living without money. She may not be buying clothes or paying property taxes but she isn't self reliant from what I can see.

Obviously not, since she opened a store where people come in and trade goods. Whether or not those befre her in the trade cycle utilized money is a nonissue here. Frmo what I read, she isnt trying to rid the entire sytem f money, just exist in a way where she is not a slave to it.
Kudos to her.

Mark Boyle dopes a similar thing, except he grows his own food, makes his own soaps etc. He is in Greece at the moment setting up a little moneyless community there, he plans to come back to the UK soon and set up another little village, where i intend to meet and learn from him.

BB


MARK BOYLE

Even if what she is doing is not "purely" living without money in the senses pointed out already in this thread, what she is doing still has enormous value. She is pointing the way forward for people who have very little, and pioneering a new way of life for a changing world. It is quite admirable. There is a place for true self-sufficency and also a place for these kinds of acts. I think this woman's outlook is great.

Originally posted by alfa1
This thread, from last month...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This comment sums up the REALITY of her lifestyle...
This person is not living without money.
She still utilizes everything that is available in her community that was paid for with money such as roads, buildings, clothing etc that was paid for with other people's money.

There was a time once, long ago...when the human mind was not filled with rails, bannisters...objects that kept certain areas roped off, while keeping us constrained and guided only along certain paths.

One of the results of said constrained thought pattern, is that we've come to believe that capitalism and, indeed, all of the other isms, are things that we need, things that define both us and the world, things that we and the universe itself could not possibly live without.

Money, intellectual property...things that we've almost come to believe have life and breath and real, tangible, physical existence. They don't. They are ghosts, abstractions. Invented by and for individuals who crave limitations on their thinking, because they fear freedom.

They fear being impractical. They fear thinking anything crazy or irrational or illogical. They fear not having a grey, suited, utterly colourless existence lived totally by the clock.

Barriers are safety. The clock is safety. Money cannot be lived without. Freedom is slavery. Igorance is strength.

Open your mind, and rediscover what it means to be really human. Or don't, and die mentally and spiritually; long before you have died physically.

reply to post by youdidntseeme


"not a slave to money" sounds a bit more accurate, and yes, I can see that now. Im still a bit on the fence of how shes getting her message out, maybe in the long run people WILL start relying less on money.

Originally posted by topherman420
reply to post by youdidntseeme

 

"not a slave to money" sounds a bit more accurate, and yes, I can see that now. Im still a bit on the fence of how shes getting her message out, maybe in the long run people WILL start relying less on money.

I think eventually we as society will have to learn how to survive with less money.

reply to post by Daedal


Me as well, unfortunately I don't think it will be as easy as a "world/society reset"....I think it will be a long journey that we may never see in our lifetime.
The most active, immediate change we can make is personal decisions from removing our debt, to being more self reliant with food, energy and entertainment.