Green Website Spotlight: Freeconomy Community
November 28, 2007 by Jennifer
Thanks to everyone for the nice birthday comments. Sorry I’ve been missing my computer is having issues — not a great thing for a blogger. It should be completely fixed though (but it could need a few more tweaks; we’ll see).
In any case Tracy from EcoStreet emailed me last week to tell me about this great new site and I wanted to share. Tracy wrote an entire cool post about this new site, Freeconomy Community already but I will go over some of the basics.
Freeconomy Community is a site that people are joining up with from all over the world.
Here’s what the community itself is saying…
“It’s about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society. It’s about helping others and providing an opportunity for others to help you. It’s about sharing the skills you have learnt through your life and learning those you haven’t. It’s about sharing your tools so you all can have access to all the tools under the sun without it costing the earth. It’s about using any free space you have to either benefit positive, ethical and local projects, or to enable volunteers to keep doing their amazing work for free. It’s about sharing the land you don’t need in order to facilitate a local food community. It’s about freeconnecting neighbours. It’s about keeping the taxman out of it. It’s about learning to help each other again….”
And onward. You can read the entire low-down behind the community right here.
I grabbed this from their website to kind of give you an idea of how members participate. If you become a member you can share in the freeconomy community in one of these ways:
“Skillshare is about sharing the skills you have learnt throughout your life and learning those you haven’t. With peak oil approaching and climate change occurring more rapidly than most expected, we believe … read more
Toolshare is an initiative which enables members to have access to every tool under the sun without it costing the earth. Members of this scheme in each local community get to … read more
Spaceshare is ideal for people who haven’t got enough time or money to support projects they really believe in, but who have got some space to offer. This may come in the form of … read more
Landshare asks the question ‘Have you got more land than you need or can physically deal with?’ If the answer is yes, then join Landshare and give some of it up to the local community as allotments and become part of a local food revolution. We are approaching a time … read more“
Very cool.
I absolutely agree with the idea behind this community and like most of their thoughts. Their take on what a freeconomy is, “A Freeconomy is a moneyless society in which no money changes and there is no duality between giving and receiving; here they are seen as the two sides of the same non-monetary coin” is interesting and it’s impossible to argue that money is very detrimental to society in terms of placing people in immobile positions. The drive for money and rising costs of everything by the sellers of goods also, I think forces people to spend more energy at work and instills the drive for things rather than time with their family and friends.
I disagree with this point by Freeconomy, “Money and credit are the common denominators of all the world’s ills.” I honestly think this community is a grand idea but I also think that this is an poorly thought out statement. it’s not true. I’ve met people in my life who can be called nothing less than evil and money was the least of the issues surrounding their actions. I think we, as a community will have less ills and trouble if we did go to a moneyless or at least less consumer based society but money is simply paper, rocks, metals, etc.; blaming it for someone’s crimes is not quite the right answer.
Saoirse, the mastermind behind Freeconomy even addresses this saying, “I should make it clear that I don’t blame the innocent notes and coins that are labeled as such. For me, I label the fear, insecurity and lack of faith in humanity and the universe to look after us as money.” So point taken yet the first statement is still plastered on the website. I do agree that money is causing huge problems related to some of the other issues addressed by Saoirse such as, “Environmental destruction on a criminal scale, factory farms, sweatshops, the war on peace, multinational corporations, billboards…” To me a lot of, if not almost 100% of environmental harm is caught up in the all mighty dollar and the urge to have more.
Saoirse, said creator of Freeconomy, notes that he’s, “Walking from Bristol in the UK to Porbandar in India without any form of money because I want my life to be my message.” Part of the site is dedicated to this journey which is so cool.
Here he is… if you happen to see him he’ll give you a password which allows you to access a special part of the sightings area. Fun stuff. I don’t think I’ve seen him. Course, I’m in the NW US.
You can sign up for Freeconomy, if you feel you have something to offer or something you need — or even if you may in the future the rules (or virtues) are lax. My favorite virtue is, “There are no chat rooms. If you want to chat, go and do some gardening together.” That’s awesome. I also love the end sentiments, “We hope that at some point in the future this site will become obsolete because we will all know our neighbours again.” How nice is that.
Anyhow, check Freeconomy out because this world needs all the help it can to get back to a state where we believe in each other more than items, where money is secondary, and where positive and interactive real-life communities exist.
Thanks to cool as beans Tracy for sending me this information. You can visit Tracey at EcoStreet or The Zen Housewife; both amazing reads.
So, what do all of you think of a less consumer (or moneyless) society. Reality or pipe dream? Discuss.
very, extremely cool. I belong ot a similar site for homesteaders…we exchange seeds and even livestock!
This is the kind of radical rethink that makes me excited about being alive and renews my hope in humanity. Thank you for posting this in the middle of your computer meltdown.
I knew the two of you (Marye, Kate) would like this idea. It’s so both of you. I think it’s not the only way to answer the call to eco and peace issues but it is a big step. If people see fit to make it a reality in their daily lives.
I’ve watched this in action and it’s truly amazing! In my hometown, there’s a group of ranchers that partake in something very similar. They share water, grain, hay, tending of animals. The ability to work together is wonderful.
In Silverton, Colorado, the residents survive through a combination of money and exchanged labor. In a town of 800 people at 9,800 ft above sea-level, one needs to get creative.
The biggest issue with money is we work for it instead of figuring out how it can work for us. And I don’t mean investing, but instead how we utilize money to solve problems. For the most part, businesses run to make a profit, then go about determining how their business might actually be in alignment with some moral principle or how their business solves problems. Then, of course, they need the photo op to prove what great corporate citizens they are.
What would happen if we did just the opposite. Sought how we want our money and resource to work, applied them to those areas, and then figured out how to make a profit.
Mysti ~ Hi, I’ve seen stuff like this in action but not to an extreme. It sounds like you’ve seen some action that really works. I think we need to see more because the actions make people believers.
Bret; Good comment! I agree that we should use money to solve issues but I guess that freeconomy is saying that won’t happen. I wonder. We have so much money as a collective people and more importantly so many resources yet we can’t seem to learn to divvy them up. What I think is that there should be a bigger push towards simple living because when people realize that they don’t need all that “stuff” they seem more willing to share. Thanks so much for coming by and visiting
In addition to using money to solve our most pressing problems, let’s take a close look at what we use money for. Often in a consumer-driven society and economy, we use money to remove ourselves from the messing business of relationships with other people, nature or the consequences of our actions.
We outsource our relationship to children because dealing with children, especially changing diapers, is messy business. Likewise, we outsource our relationship with the elderly, because they too are difficult and messy to deal with. Teenagers are problematic as well, so we create various simulating music, television programs, video games, etc too keep them out of our hair. Then, of course, there is the problem spouse, sibling and parent. All are unpredictable and all come with problems. Better to tune in to my iPod, and if there is a problem with it, throw it away or download another song. Things are, after all, easily disposable, people are not.
Likewise, we want nature to be clean, easy and prepackaged. No ugly tomatoes in the grocery cart or food that requires preparation.
We also consume so we can avoid or put off the consequences of our choices. We also want a war that is technologically thrilling but convenient. No tax increases to pay for our trillion dollar wars, no rationing of food or fuel, or registering for the draft. We have other priorities and things to buy. Besides, we already bought the bumper stickers.
We consume to avoid the complexities of life and relationships yet in so doing remain empty, always wanting more and at the same time creating a world more and more complex.
So what do we do? Instead of buying something to fill a need, seek a relationship with someone. Write a letter to a relative or friend. Set aside five or ten minutes to be completely present with a child or parent or co-worker. Serve soup at a soup kitchen. Sign up as a greeter at your church. Adopt a “grandma” or “grandpa” at a nursing home.
If we want to survive the deluge of consumerism, we need to daily work on and build our ARK (Acts of Random Kindness), committing more of our resources and talents to people and the natural world and less to things we can buy.