The following is
a list of sixty-two things that you can do to wean yourself off your
dependence upon the U.S. Dollar (USD) – and currencies and moneys in general –
in order to survive.
Many of these
methods would also help achieve easier access to water, food, clothing,
medicine, and shelter – i.e., the basic means of survival – and/or would
help make it legal (for example, more often legal, or legal in more places) to
obtain access to, and/or possession or ownership of, such needs, without
requiring the use of currencies.
Readers should be cautioned that some of these suggestions do not actually achieve the direct nor immediate abolition of currencies; but instead are merely alternatives
to moneys, currencies, and/or the Dollar. Many solutions listed below also do not necessarily threaten to abolish
the systems of capitalism, exchange, the wage system, market systems, pressured and coerced labor, and perhaps even private property, most or all of which are likely to still prove to remain problematic, even if and after currencies are successfully boycotted (or even, potentially, abolished).
[Notes: "Anagorism" is a term which refers to a system in which there are no markets. "Anideotism" is a term which refers to a system in which there is no private property.]
This article is based on my February
2017 article, titled “You Don’t Need Money to Live”, which is based on things I
learned from my research associate Tom o’Donnell and his father Tim o’Donnell.
That article can be read at the following address:
#1. Use – and/or work in
exchange for – constitutional currencies, such as gold and silver. I refer to
gold and silver as “constitutional currencies” because Article I, Section 10,
Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides that “No State shall… make any Thing
but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”. This arguably renders
fiat currencies, such as the U.S. Dollar, as a currency which is
unconstitutional – and therefore illegal and invalid – given that it is not
made out of gold and silver, and (since 1971) is not even backed by gold
reserves anymore.
Learn more at:
#2. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – “Gold CDs” and “Silver CDs” (i.e., gold certificates of deposit
and silver certificates of deposit).
#3. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – “private currencies”, including independently minted coins made from
precious metals. One example was the “American Liberty Dollar” (ALD) which was
minted by Bernard von NotHaus, until he was arrested – essentially on a bogus
charge of counterfeiting – for doing so.
Learn more at:
#4. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – other precious metals, aside from gold and silver; such as palladium.
#5. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – interest-free currencies, such as “Greenbacks” (a type of Demand Note or
United States Note).
Learn more at:
#6. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – e-currencies (i.e., electronic currencies) and cryptocurrencies,
such as Bitcoin, Tether (USDT; a “stablecoin”), and e-currencies which rely on
blockchain ledger technology.
[Note: I do not endorse the use of
Bitcoin, nor of Tether, nor stablecoins; I am merely pointing out that they are
arguably alternatives to the U.S. Dollar. However, Tether and stablecoins – and
other Central Bank Digital Currencies (C.B.D.C.s) – are arguably not
alternatives to the Dollar, since their values are pegged / tied / tethered to
the value of the Dollar.]
Learn more at:
http://rumble.com/v1moyda-the-youtube-algorithm-was-invented-by-child-predator-marc-collins-rector.html
http://rumble.com/v1vgi86-nikolai-mushegians-death-exposes-link-between-f.t.x.-and-pedo-elite-sex-tra.html
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/blog/financial-services/2024/06/20/central-bank-digital-currencies-accelerating-a-digital-economy-with-advanced-technology/#:~:text=To%20keep%20abreast%20of%20the,bank%20digital%20currencies%20(CBDCs).
#7. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – local currencies - including regional currencies and community currencies
- such as Colorado Mountain-Hours. These currencies act as “complementary
currencies”, complementing the use of national currencies.
Learn more at:
#8. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – labor notes (also known as labour cheques, labor vouchers, labor
certificates). These are non-transferable vouchers which are earned through
individual labor and work. One intention of labor notes is to make it
impossible to steal money and currency.
Labor notes were used at Josiah
Warren’s Cincinnati Time Store. Pyotr Kropotkin criticized labor notes as a
“new form of wages”.
Learn more at:
#9. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – “time-based currencies” (such as TimeDollars), or use time-based stores
and banks (such as the Cincinnati TimeStore, which used labor notes; and
TimeBanks).
Learn more at:
#10. Advocate for
laws which would result in the abolition of fiat currency, fractional banking,
and the “independent” private Federal Reserve System; and which would require
full-reserve banking. This would prevent the U.S. Dollar from continuing to
lose approximately fifty percent of its value every 20 to 25 years.
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-reserve_banking
#11. Keep your money, currency, dollars,
and/or valuables in safety deposit boxes, and/or bury them. This will help you resist
the urge to use them, while you think of other things to use in exchange for
what you want and need. Also, they may appreciate in value – whether for use as
a currency, or simply as collectors’ items – provided that they are properly
preserved.
#12. Buy things. That is; exchange the
currency that you have, for durable goods, which will help you survive more
easily without currency or money. This will help you avoid losing value which
you would lose in the course of exchanging your currency (which possesses no
store of value) for the things you need (which do possess store of value).
#13. Pay your taxes one last time (using U.S. Dollars),
and then stop using money entirely.
#14. Use – and/or work in exchange
for – non-monetary forms of compensation; i.e., in exchange for your
most important survival needs (such as food, clothing, housing, shelter, and/or
medicine), or working in exchange for wants that are not essential to your
survival.
This will likely require urging your
current employer – and/or future employer(s) – to offer you (and your
co-workers) opportunities to be compensated for your labor, by working directly
in exchange for the things you need to survive, as opposed to working in
exchange for currencies and moneys.
Types of working in exchange for
your needs, include hunting and gathering.
#15. Engage in hunting and
gathering; i.e., hunt and trap in order to kill to obtain the meat of
wildlife, fish for marine creatures, and/or forage and gather vegetables.
Hunting and gathering are forms of “working” (or recreation, or play, depending
on how you want to look at it) in exchange for your needs.
#16. Reject and boycott the wage
system; by refusing to work in exchange for an hourly wage, and by encouraging
others to do the same.
#17. Barter. That is: provide
resources to others, which they need and/or want, in exchange for receiving
resources that you need or want.
One example of bartering is
“trading-out”.
Learn more at:
#18. Trade your possessions and/or
labor in exchange for the things you need, without involving money or currency
or taxation (i.e., “trading-out”). Trading out is a form of bartering.
Learn more at:
#19. Gift / give gifts / give to
others without expecting anything in return.
#20. Share; i.e., allowing
others to have, use, and/or borrow your possessions, either temporarily or
permanently (while indicating whether and when you want them back).
#21. Hold goods in common / hold
goods in commonwealth; i.e., possess resources in common, in
coordination, and in conjunction with others (a form of sharing).
#22. Make “time-share” agreements,
which provide for the coordinated, planned, temporary use and sharing of the
same resources (most notably, occupiable spaces such as residences and
campgrounds); most importantly, those which do not involve or require the use
of either Dollars, currency, nor moneys.
#23. Participate in Native American
“potlatch” ceremonies, and “give-offs”. These are ceremonies in which people use
opportunities to display their wealth, by showing how much they can give away
to others. Potlatch can also involve the intentional destruction of valuable
items, in order to demonstrate such wealth.
Learn more at:
http://www.diggers.org/free_store.htm
#24. Donate your time voluntarily,
and/or work for free. Also, persuade others to do the same (but do not pressure
them, nor coerce them; only persuade them to work for free if – and to the
extent to which - they can afford to do so).
#25. Shop at “free stores” - for
example, the (now-defunct) Diggers’ Free Store in New York City – or work with
others to open your own free store. These stores operate on the same principles
as the “take a penny, leave a penny” system which is sometimes found in
convenience stores, in the form of penny trays. People can voluntarily donate
goods to such “free stores”, out of the surplus contained in their own homes;
and then whomever needs such goods are free to take them. Of course, such
stores can only be sustainable if and when more goods are donated than the amount
of goods which are taken out of them.
A similar concept is the
“Nic-at-Nite” system; in national and state forests in the United States,
hippies hold “Rainbow Gatherings” in which they camp in the woods, and avoid
using money as much as possible, because it may be illegal to use U.S. Dollars
in some of the park systems. Here, you can find “Nic-at-Niters”; people who volunteer
to collect free donations of tobacco and rolling papers, and walk around
offering free cigarettes to people, saying “You want a cigarette!? I got
a cigarette! You got a cigarette!? I need a cigarette!”
Learn more at:
#26. Use – and participate in - social
credit systems which do not require the use of money or currency or the Dollar
(some of which do, and some of which don’t).
Learn more at:
#27. Use – and/or work in exchange
for (and encourage others to begin using) – mutuum checks / mutuum cheques. A mutuum
cheque can function as a loan for the purpose of consumption, a contract or
proof of legal promise, a check / cheque, a bill of sale or bill of lading, a
receipt, a certificate of deposit, a promissory note or I.O.U. (“I owe you”), a
currency representing a real store of value, or all of the above.
#28. Watch the
T.L.C. (The Learning Channel) show “Extreme Couponing”, to learn tips on how to
find, print, and use coupons, and plan your purchases efficiently in order to
save time at the store. You can combine your purchases of expensive items at
grocery stores, with coupons which provide significant savings on small, mass-produced,
inexpensive items, for which customers often have little need. Many episodes of
“Extreme Couponing” show customers buying large amounts of goods, worth
hundreds or even thousands of dollars, for free, or in exchange for very small
amounts of currency.
#29. Pay it forward. “Paying it
forward” involves giving or paying to an uninvolved, new, third party, as
opposed to giving something back to the person who paid or provided something
to you. You should only “pay it forward” if the person who gave to you, doesn’t
mind you refraining from paying them back.
Learn more at:
#30. Use – and donate to - mutual
aid networks and mutual aid societies, and “friendly societies” and “benefit
societies” (including food aid networks such as “Food Not Bombs”).
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid_(emergency_services)
#31. Survey your town or city -
looking for water fountains, free meals, food pantries, homeless shelters,
restrooms, and electronic charging stations, whose owners allow poor and
homeless people to access their resources for free – and make a map of where these
services are located. Then, print these maps – using your own money – and
distribute them to homeless and low-income individuals, without expecting
anything in return.
Learn more at:
#32. In the event that the U.S.
Dollar undergoes serious inflation which renders it nearly worthless, dollar
bills can be made into wallpaper, or bundled together into building blocks that
children can use for playing. Hyperinflation rendered the currency of Weimar
Germany worthless, and so, German citizens resorted to using their currency, in
such manners, to make use of what little store of value it actually held.
#33. Make clothing – including armor
– out of currency, in order to make use of it for its actual store of value.
U.S. Dollars are made out of cotton and linen and other materials, but dissolve
easily in water, so their utility for the purpose of making clothing is
limited; however, it can be done, as long as the owner of the clothing is
careful with the item, or makes it out of materials which are more physically
durable than U.S. Dollar bills.
Learn more at:
#34. Use and develop food-based
currencies. Unlike fiat currencies, food-based currencies hold a real store of
value, because they can be eaten. Food-based currencies include Chinese
tea-bricks, which can be eaten, or used to make tea, or hardened so as to operate
as construction material. Foods which don’t expire or go bad – or are meant to
expire or go bad – are the best food-based currencies. These potentially
include honey, beef jerky and other meat jerkies, croutons, and sour cream.
Learn more at:
#35. Advocate and
lobby for the relaxation of homesteading laws, in a manner which would make it
easier to claim that you have homesteaded your residence and the land upon
which it sits. This could involve amending homesteading laws, in a manner which
would shorten the duration of time over which a person would have to
continuously occupy a residence in order to claim it as their own.
#36. Advocate and lobby for the
extension of homesteading tax credits (also known as homestead credits), so
that they can be claimed in more states, and so that they can be made to apply
to small residences (such as apartments, trailers, and “tiny houses”).
Learn more at:
#37. Advocate and
lobby for the offering of tax credits, and/or other tax incentives – to
landlords and managers, and housing boards – in exchange for allowing homeless
and low-income people to sleep and/or reside in whatever units they own which
may be going unused or empty.
#38. Advocate and lobby for the
passage of laws which would abolish absentee property ownership (i.e., the
legal claiming of ownership of properties which the actual claimed owner plays
no part in using, and/or no part in participating in their daily defense).
Learn more at:
http://www.rockethomes.com/blog/housing-market/absentee-owner
#39. Advocate and lobby for the
offering of tax incentives, to the owners and landlords and managers of
apartment buildings – and to housing boards – to allow homeless and low-income
people to sleep in whichever of their housing units may be going empty and
unused.
#40. Simply let people go get the things they need. Ensure universal and open access to the basic means of survival; i.e., make it illegal for law enforcement officials to use force and initiatory violence in order to administer and apply laws which prohibit people from collecting resources essential which are to their survival, which were provided to them for free by nature. These include – most notably and obviously – air and land (which people cannot help but use and occupy, except for killing themselves), as well as water (which is abundant, and falls from the sky).
#42. Advocate and
lobby for relaxing and/or repealing laws which limit or prohibit people from
growing edible plant produce, and raising small livestock (such as bees, rabbits,
chickens, ducks, and goats) on or outside their homes.
Learn more at:
http://news.wttw.com/2018/02/05/chickens-and-goats-backyard-raising-livestock-chicago
#43. Advocate and
lobby for the repeal of laws against vagrancy; for example, laws which allow
police officers to arrest travelers, vagrants, and homeless people provided they
do not have enough money to stay in a hotel in the pertinent town for the night.
One example would be to advocate for the repeal of laws against loitering.
Learn more at:
http://www.law.virginia.edu/scholarship/publication/risa-goluboff/640716#:~:text=Vagrancy%20laws%20took%20myriad%20forms,some%20jurisdictions%20criminalized%20loitering%20separately.
#44. Advocate and lobby for the relaxation
and/or repeal of laws against sleeping (sometimes referred to as “camping”) and
of squatting; especially on town and city and other municipal property, and
other public lands.
#45. Advocate and lobby for the relaxation
of local building and construction codes, in a manner which would allow for a
wider range of experimentation in architecture. One way would be to amend the
law to allow homes to be made from recyclable and reusable materials.
Components of these homes – called “Earth Ships” – often include dirt packed
into tires, aluminum cans wrapped together with pieces of twine, and colored
glass bottles stacked together in mosaic patterns. These homes are usually
built with windows facing the sun, and have been known to retain heat and cold
well, which makes it extremely cheap (or even free) to regulate their
temperature, allowing such homes to go entirely without modern H.V.A.C. (heating,
ventilation, and air conditioning).
Architect Mike Reynolds successfully
lobbied the government of the State of New Mexico to do this, and then he
travelled to Indonesia to teach locals how to gather recyclable materials, and build
houses from them, after the 2004 tsunami in Banda Aceh.
Learn more at:
http://earthship.com
http://theministryofarchitecture.com/earthships/earthship-pros-cons/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZTiocr3LU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_Warrior
#46. Advocate and lobby for the
repeal of laws which hinder people from – and/or punish people for – donating foods,
clothing, and other goods, to the homeless. One example would be to take down
signs which advise people not to give to panhandlers, and to instead donate to
homeless shelters and other homeless services. Raise awareness that voluntary
giving is not a crime.
#47. Urge your local homeless
shelters to set up free laundry services for the people who use said shelters.
Such services could be funded through additional donations from the public,
and/or by whatever funds those shelters may already have available.
#48. Advocate and lobby for the
repeal or relaxation of laws against public nudity, and of other legally
binding dress codes which apply to the public (provided that such repeal would
not result in the legalization of indecent exposure). This would help reduce
the annual cost of clothing which is incurred by the poor.
#49. Lobby governments to stop sending public
taxpayer money – and other forms of public assistance – to food companies,
especially “Big Ag” (big agriculture) companies which make billions of dollars
each year and would likely thrive without public assistance.
Examples of such public assistance
include bailout funds, government contracts, monopoly privileges (such as
patents), bankruptcy assistance, corporate subsidies, trade promotions and
trade protections (such as finance and insurance from the Export-Import Bank), easy
credit and low interest rates (from the Federal Reserve System), discounts on
public utilities (such as roads and electricity), small business loans (such as
P.P.P. loans), and favorable zoning laws and professional regulations, among
others.
#50. Advocate and lobby for the offering
of tax incentives, to grocery stores and supermarkets, to donate food
(especially excess / surplus foods, and foods that will spoil and go bad if
they are not soon used) to the homeless and needy. Also, advocate and lobby for
requiring such stores to donate unsold foods to the homeless and needy;
or for revoking the charters of businesses which do not do so.
Learn more at:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets
http://recycle.ab.ca/newsletterarticle/france-becomes-first-country-to-ban-supermarket-food-waste/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/is-frances-groundbreaking-food-waste-law-working
#51. Raise awareness about gleaning,
the gathering of plant produce which is going unused, sitting in fields,
because it is not suitable for sale. Such food is often perfectly edible.
A related task could be to advocate
for the repeal of laws which prohibit “dumpster diving” (i.e., “diving”
into dumpsters in order to find food that could still be eaten).
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_v_Houghton
#52. Instead of using mass-produced,
specialized, processed foods (which are often unhealthful and expensive), buy
generic foods, and engage in bulk purchasing. This is easy to do, if you shop
at wholesale food distribution stores (such as CostCo and WinCo), and food cooperatives
/ grocery cooperatives. Generic foods are often sold in bulk, but it is only efficient
to buy bulk foods if you live in a housing cooperative, and/or routinely share
meals with other people.
#53. Advocate and lobby for the repeal or relaxation
of laws which require local food and health inspectors, and/or the F.D.A. (Food
and Drug Administration) to inspect any and all foods offered for potential
purchase by the buying “public”. Foods which may be subject to such inspection
include farm-to-fork meals (meals which go directly from farm to the dinner
table), homemade baked goods offered for school bake sales, and children’s
lemonade stands. [The freedom to start a lemonade stand is referred to as “Lemonade
Liberty”.] The laws could be amended so as to prohibit the destruction of such
foods (including with bleach) simply because they were offered for sale before
or without inspection.
Learn more at:
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/blog/2012/12/18/revisiting-the-farm-to-fork-fiasco/
http://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/bake-sales-should-follow-basic-food-safety-precautions/
http://www.northfortmyersneighbor.com/2011/09/20/lemonade-liberty-a-lesson-in-freedom/
#54. Agree to work, washing dishes or cleaning, in exchange
for food, provided that the owners of the restaurant are okay with you doing
so, and that you are not planning on doing it solely in the event that you get
caught attempting to “dine and dash” (i.e., eat, and then run out of the
restaurant without paying).
Musician Jon Bon Jovi opened a restaurant, called "JBJ Soul Kitchen", which advertises no prices for meals, and which is funded largely on donations and volunteering.
Learn more at:
http://jbjsoulkitchen.org/
#55. Advocate and lobby for the
reduction of patent terms on foods. This will allow generic versions of
patented foods to enter the market sooner, rather than later, usually in a
manner which allows such a food to be purchased more cheaply.
#56. Advocate and lobby for the
reduction of patent terms (sometimes called patent “lifespans”) on medications.
This will allow generic versions of patented medications to enter the market
sooner, rather than later, usually in a manner which allows such a food to be
purchased more cheaply.
I have proposed a law called “E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C.”
which would do just this. “E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C.” stands for “Eliminating Medical
Patents to Achieve Technology for Immortality Cheaply”. I like to say that we
should make medical patent “lifespans” shorter in order to help make human
lifespans last longer.
#57. Advocate and lobby for the
passage of a new law which would offer doctors and nurses opportunities to
voluntarily submit to legally enforcement of the provision of the Hippocratic
Oath which prohibits them from declining to treat people due to inability to
pay. The same oath also requires doctors to share medical knowledge for free,
and even to give their own money to patients who are in need. Such enforcement
could potentially provide for the revoking of medical licenses for any and all health
care workers who promise to provide free care, but then renege on their
promises.
The Hippocratic Oath reads, in part: “…when he
is in need of money to share mine with him… to teach them this art, if they
want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction…”.
Such a law, if widely adopted, would
drastically reduce not only the costs of health care, but also the costs of
medical education.
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
#58. Raise awareness that architect Buckminster Fuller said that "one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest." This would imply that it would only require the volunteer labor of about 800,000 people in order to support the current human population of eight billion.
#59. Increase awareness that
scarcity is a myth, because it is an illusion, and artificial, and
manufactured, for the purposes of making us think that shortages are natural
and normal and occur frequently. Additionally, raise awareness that scarcity, shortages,
fixedness, finitude / finity, and limitation / limitedness, are not the
same thing; and that schools of economics are trying to lead us to think that
they are the same thing.
For more information, please read my
May 2023 article, titled “Economics Uses a False Definition of Scarcity (and
Ignores Abundance)”, which can be read at the following address:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2023/05/economics-uses-false-definition-of.html
#60. Read articles about – and/or watch
video interviews with – Daniel Suelo, “the man who quit money”, in order to get
more ideas about how to live without using moneys and currencies.
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suelo
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/the-man-who-quit-money-an-interview-with-daniel-suelo/
#61. Start a campaign which involves urging and encouraging others to boycott the U.S. Dollar, and/or to quit currency and/or money entirely, using the other tips which are listed, above and below, in this article. Remind people that you don’t die if you stop needing
money, and that money is not one of our basic means of survival; rather, air, water, food, clothing, shelter, and medicine are. Show this article to anybody you know, who claims that “you need money
to live” or that “you need money in order to survive”.
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-monetary_economy
#62. Stop associating with people who use money and currencies and the U.S. Dollar. This will only be practical and practicable on a mass scale, if, after, and when more people begin to attempt to boycott currencies, and are able to share this knowledge with others, and recover from their addiction to currencies, successfully.
Written, and originally published incomplete,
on June 21st, 2024.
Originally published under the title
"Fifty-Seven Ways to Decrease Your Dependence
Upon the U.S. Dollar, Other Currencies, and Moneys in General"
Edited, expanded, and completed
on June 22nd, 2024.
Based on my February 2017 article
"You Don't Need Money to Live",
which was written on February 17th, 2017,
edited on February 18th through 20th, and 25th,
March 19th and 23rd, and April 4th, 2017,
and August 16th, 2019.
