Ever since the introductory of the monetary system the majority of human society has revolved around the burden of value. It was once believed that by trading something of worth one could acquire services and goods that they were either unable to obtain by their own ability or just not available in their environment. By trading services at varying value the ease of forward progress was possible within the growing population masses and a system of balance was established amongst its people. However, as the burden increases and value of worth difficulties lead to problems with cost of living, debt, and other financial woes, humanity has begun to question whether the system that had once led to progress isn’t instead traveling a darker road.
Unfortunately there isn’t an answer to the growing concerns as yet. In a world bound to money, one must submit and belong or refuse and seek seclusion. It is a difficult choice to make and is often never considered. After all, who can live without money? Is such a thing even possible? The answer is yes and no.
Simple societies are often without monetary systems and instead rely on trade and bartering for the exchange of goods and services. Goods for goods is not unlike money exchange, but both objects traded have immediate worth. Food exchanged for weapons, clothes, building supplies, or talents is an example of simple trade that used to exist in the past and still exists in tribal or isolated cultures and societies that haven’t had the exposure to or the ability to embrace a modern society and its systems of government and structure. The lone social recluse or man of nature is another example of one who lives without money, and it is a life solely relying on one’s own ability to survive. For most people of the modern world this is neither a desirable life to pursue nor a consideration.
Those bound to the cycle of endless wants and need are a slave to this world’s money systems. Rent, mortgage, electricity, oil, gas, food, clothes, transportation… the list goes on and on comprised of things wanted and needed by most of those never having the opportunity to self-produce any of the items themselves, needing to rely solely on the currency earned through a life of work focused at one aspect of this world. Unlike the simple societies scattered across the globe, these are the people who can only channel their energies towards one piece of their interconnected puzzle-like world. Is a life without money possible here? Or course it isn’t.
It is a difficult choice to make. To either live in a world of services but suffer the value or deprive yourself but live free of money’s burden. Yet the line doesn’t have to be so distinct between the two. There does exist a method that slashes the dependencies and mitigates the difficulties, but it isn’t the easiest to set up, and it doesn’t erase the existence of money. In fact, often it requires a sizable sum of money to access, but can help to drastically reduce the dependence once into it. That method is sustainability.
In sustainability one establishes a working of their home that best utilizes its environment around it to produce their own electricity, heat, and lessens the need of outside utilities or services. Such homes are part of the Green wave that pay for themselves and erase major monthly expenditures. If these Green Homes produce enough electricity and supplies extra amounts into the grid, the electricity companies would pay the owner. As the prices of electricity continue to rise, eventual earnings could erase the cost of maintenance. For those wanting to live a life without money, not having to pay rent, utilities, and even covering food costs would go a long way.
Although life can be lived without money, it is still much easier to be part of a society that uses it. One needn’t spend their entire lives slave to a never ceasing worry; instead choosing to invest their youthful earnings towards a promise of an eventual lessened concern may help the Green Home owners discover that money isn’t a terrible thing after all. It all depends on how it’s used in a positive to diminish society’s negative perception of it.