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DANIEL SUELO, 48, HAS BEEN living without money or any barter system, and no food stamps or government help, for the past nine years. While in Ecuador on a Peace Corps mission, he witnessed a rural community acquire increased monetary wealth through farming and shift their traditional lifestyle towards a diet of unhealthy, processed food and a newfound addiction to television.
The experience led Suelo on a spiritual quest that realized itself in India, where he was particularly moved by the Sadhus, wandering monks who renounce all money and possessions. He made the conscious decision to return home, quit his job, and carve out a life without money.
As he put it, “I simply got tired of being unreal. Money is one of those intriguing things that seem real and functional because two or more people believe it is real and functional.”
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Today, Suelo lives in a cave in Utah and gets around by hopping trains or hitchhiking. For food he relies on dumpster diving, foraging, fishing, and, occasionally, hunting. From the public library he authors a blog and a website where he discusses his everyday life and offers up deep philosophical musings on why a society based on the concept of money is harmful and contrary to our true nature.
He says he’s never been happier, living like “ants and deer and slugs and sparrows and bacteria and atoms and galaxies.”
Though Suelo’s story is a particularly riveting one, less radical communities of “freegans” are cropping up in places like San Francisco and New York. These groups have risen out of a desire to boycott what is seen as an unethical corporate system and to minimize the waste of resources. To varying degrees, freegans salvage edible food from dumpsters, squat in abandoned buildings, and encourage a reconsideration of the benefits of leisure and play as opposed to excessive work.
These movements have not flourished without criticism. Freegans are often dismissed as freeloaders. Others assess the lifestyle as a way to deal with extreme liberal guilt while still living within the confines of privilege and comfort. Daniel Suelo frequently receives hate mail expounding him to get a job and stop mooching off society.
It’s a valid discourse. It’s nearly impossible to be completely self sufficient. Suelo frequently relies on hitched rides, a library that’s supported by taxes, and the various cast off excesses of consumer society. He dismisses that this devalues his philosophy, asking “Are swallows nesting in house attics dependent upon money?”
He cites that goods flow from producers (laborers) to bankers, brokers, and landlords who produce nothing. He frequently touts his lifestyle as a return to a way of living more in line with the natural world, a way towards freedom from things that don’t exist towards one of generosity and truth.
However, it can be argued that a system of barter is indeed a part of our nature. Our nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, frequently barter food for grooming and sex. Even Neolithic cavemen bartered. A return to a world without money would be possible only if human beings, like bees and ants, decided to utilize our skills equally so that we may benefit from each other freely.
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Knowing the history of humanity, however, it doesn’t seem that we can adhere to such noble principles. Furthermore, even without money or a bartering system, human beings could still find ways to oppress each other.
It’s also important to note that Suelo’s lifestyle would not work if he lived in a less monetarily wealthy country. Many people live with virtually no money, and there are no overabundant dumpsters or gifts from generous neighbors to compensate for a lack of “monetary illusion.” In those places, not being a slave to a piece of paper also results in starvation and death.
Many travelers often walk a thin line between admiring a community and romanticizing poverty. It’s possible to question whether Suelo’s motives lie in some kind of imperialist nostalgia towards the communities he encountered on his travels.
However, philosophically speaking it is true that we tend to live in a real-life matrix. Our society as a whole is comprised of things that exist only in our collective consciousness rather than in reality.
Take for instance, the idea of borders. In the 19th century, Native Americans referred to the border between Canada and the United States as the “medicine line” because they were perplexed that the American troops would chase them through the land but suddenly stop when they crossed that invisible line. They thought it was magic; to the Native Americans, all of it was just land.
Just like borders, money is a concept that becomes real only because we believe in it collectively. As Suelo says, “If a dollar bill represented itself, it would no longer be money. It would simply be a piece of paper with pretty art on it.” The fact that people will kill each other and ruin the earth for an abstract concept seems almost ludicrous when analyzed from that angle. It’s downright maddening when multiple psychological studies confirm the old adage that money really does not buy happiness.
Who really understands our complex monetary system, other than the few who benefit tremendously from such knowledge? Henry Ford once said, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Rarely do we ever question our entire financial system until some kind of disaster, like the current economic recession, sparks the discussion.
Regardless of any stance, it is interesting to witness someone who disagrees with conventional society to such a degree that he opts out of it completely.
Do you find Daniel Suelo’s lifestyle commendable or outrageous? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Community Connection:
Want to try your hand at some freegan strategies? Check out Matador editor Kate Sedgwick’s Beginner’s Guide to Dumpster Diving and David DeFranza’s Beginner’s Guide to Foraging for Food.
Gabriela Garcia
Gabriela Garcia is a freelance writer who splits her time between New York, Miami, and, as often as possible, the world. In between pondering the universe, she enjoys Jivamukti yoga, camping, and chance encounters with fascinating people. She loves interacting with fellow travelers on Twitter.
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When people object to his way of life I imagine him finding a pot of gold and just throwing coins at people while yelling,” Am i contributing enough for you?”, and people responding with yesses and ‘a bit more’, then Seulo continuing his way of life unabated. How did he just contribute? Giving people gold is surely the most obvious answer, but what about the exchange of services and community and society building aspects? I suppose you could say ostensibly those who received the gold will do that part for him. But I think more than anything people never consider those aspects of their contributions monetarily or otherwise. I just want mine and anyone involved can have theirs as long as it’s not mine; seems to be more apropos. So we type on our computers which we thoroughly enjoy and realize we payed a price for them, and know somewhere in the back of our minds or bank statements that someone thoroughly enjoys our money. Ah, that unsubstantiated yet oh so enjoyable life of contributing. Makes me feel tingly when I realize how much more important I am than other people
More important? Only one person commenting here had an article written about him. I know I’m not important. If I thought otherwise, I wouldn’t waste my time with blog comments.
Absolutely fascinating article, some very valid points pro and against!
Funny how this article came by me today I was just thinking about this today and made a blog post about it. This guy manages to hitchhike for free? But doesn’t this go against what he is trying to do? He hitchhikes which is ok but other people end up paying the petrol bill? I don’t understand how this guys has managed it although I understand that that he says that money is an illusion and that we wern’t born with it.
From what the article says, I think that what this guy is doing is a form of freeloading. He isn’t paying taxes to build anything onto the library but yet he has the ‘freedom’ of using the internet. He hasn’t paid for the service workers for making the pizza or the fish or anything other kind of food. Every time he goes dumpster diving he is stealing an extra dollar or two from an employees paycheck who do work for their money.
In all retrospect he could be living without money, but that means truly doing so. That all his food should come from the outdoors such as fish or rabbit. That he shouldn’t have access to the internet because that is a form of capitalism. Either way he has made a mockery of the hard-working citizens of this country. By proclaiming himself ‘better’ because he is a moocher.
DON’T YOU SEE?!?! ALL OF US HARDWORKING PEOPLE WHO PAY TAXES ARE EARNING OUR MONEY IN WAYS THAT POLLUTE AND WEAKEN THE ECOSYSTEM UPON WHICH WE DEPEND FOR SURVIVAL!! OUR CARS, OUR HOMES, OUR BUSINESSES ALL POLLUTE; OUR ROADS SUFFOCATE THE SOIL AND CUT ANIMALS OFF FROM THEIR HABITAT; OUR USE OF ‘NATURAL RESOURCES’ HAS MEANT THE EXTINCTION OF COUNTLESS SPECIES, AND THE COMING EXTINCTION OF COUNTLESS MORE!!! WE ARE “MOOCHING” OFF OF THE PLANET, AND PATTING OURSELVES ON THE BACK FOR BEING ‘HARD WORKERS’. THE PLANET, AND WE, WOULD BENEFIT FROM HAVING A LOT MORE SLACKERS WHO LIVED OFF RABBITS AND FISH IN SOME IMAGINARY ECOSYSTEM THAT DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE.
So we’re bad cause we’re killing animals, but if we actually, directly kill animals, then it’s all cool?
Look, if you really feel that what you’re doing is harming the planet, then stop doing it. If you don’t, then continue doing what you’re doing, but don’t bother preaching something to others that you yourself don’t practice.
i agree with his concept about money. but does he work in any form to create value for the society? in a money free world people exchange home grown veggies for a piece of lamb chop for example…….
I dont think this guy is a moocher or anything of the sort. Granted, I would not live in a cave or dumster dive myself, but the concept of living without money is possible for everyone. You can plant a garden for food, maybe raise cattle or livestock for meat or hunt and fish.
As far as power goes, if you harnessed wind or solar power you could have a completely self sufficient life with modern accessories (minus internet and extra non-needed things). And as far as money goes, if Everything in the world was free, there would be no need for it.
If you are worried about labor, well some people would work because they love to do it, and other things could be run by computers or robotics, and the worst part about it is that we have all the tools to be that way now, but companies that produce these things want to make money so they purposely make a crappier(for lack of a better word) product so people will have to buy replacements later down the road, therefore they make more money!
I know some people can’t live without the power of being” better” than someone else, well if you think you have to be more powerful then that would still apply, by how much you contribute to the whole of socitey… power without money.. totally possible if people would work together and concentrate on LIVING instead of money.
I could probably go on for a while so I will end this here and let people tell their own opinions.
I don’t understand why anyone would be upset by the way he lives. He does not go around giving speeches about how people should give up their way of life and live as he does. He saw the possibility to live a certain way and he did. Much like an entrepreneur sees a way to make money and takes advantage of that. There is no lifestyle that is right or wrong. If you are willing to make the sacrifices to live a certain way then I see nothing wrong with that. The things he has/uses are free for the taking. Why would it be wrong to take something that no one wants? Do you think animals care if their food is given to them or earned through hard work? Frankly I think many people are jealous of the fact that he doesn’t have to slave away in a nine to five; that he doesn’t have to answer to anyone. Those people are too addicted to possessions to give them up, whether they admit it or not. I know I am.
I have always thought about living a society without money. I can’t see myself because I’m always getting up in the moring working for someone to get paid..Wasted time for something which is not worth life. Money doesn’t build aeroplane and make it fly…..man does…so why money? We mankind have created poverty among ourselves…