Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Priceless liberation

By Tiara Walters, Times LIVE

An economist's decision to give up cash is spawning a global movement of moneyless environmentalists

Force of circumstance has driven people throughout the world to live below the breadline and, if the looks on their faces are a measure of things, it's safe to say they think it sucks. Not Mark Boyle, however. The 31-year-old Irish economist turned "moneyless man" has given up money voluntarily - and, with that, his desire to earn or spend any more of it ever again.

"I went into economics to make as much money as I could, but then I realised I wasn't meant to spend my short time on Earth like this; that I was actually meant to show people a more respectful way of interacting with each other and treading on this planet," he says while talking on his mobile ("incoming calls only") from the solar-panelled caravan he pitched in a Bath orchard, southwest England, two years ago.

"The word 'economy' is totally misunderstood - economics is simply about meeting one's needs and money is just one economic model," says Boyle, who founded the "Freeconomy" movement, a global online forum that exchanges skills and resources for free, just before he renounced notes and coins on Buy Nothing Day in late 2008.

"When you completely localise your economy, when you meet your needs within the 15- to 20-mile (30km) radius in which you live, you stop your reliance on money, on fossil fuels and all the other environmental destruction that our pact with money buys," he says.

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