Freegan freeconomics?
I’ve always been quite interested in dumpster diving or skipping as a source of sustenance, and have found a few ethnographies on the topic of “freeganism”, in addition to following blogs dedicated to showcasing bin-hauls. The act of taking discarded goods and the potential sanctions involved definitely paints a stark image of the relationship between companies and individuals, profit and benefit – if things were clearly thrown away, why put locks around skips and criminalise those rooting around for day-old produce? I remember feeling pangs of discomfort working at restaurants, being told to slash open packages of meat or fish to taint them as they were discarded, or when management checked that no employees were eating scraps.
This led me to activist Mark Boyle’s page – some of you will have heard of him, perhaps through his column on the Guardian – and his “Moneyless Manifesto”. On the website, Boyle describes the gift economy as “the only booming economy on the planet”, and details the extreme ways he’s distanced himself from money with “freeconomic” principles. If anyone’s curious, the book in its entirety is, of course, free to read online. I think the themes of gift and the question of whether freedom from money is possible relate well to readings from both week 1 and 2.
Click on link below:
Contributed by EveliinaKuitunen on 23/01/2018
