Putting The "Free" in Freedom

Yesterday I was rummaging around various drawers and boxes in my tiny home. I was surprised at all the resources 586 sq.ft. could contain, and I am not talking about a double garage here. I am referring to my entire living space. Although I am no midnight pack rat stocking my home full of back alley and curb-side treasures, I do collect resources that may come in handy in the future. My place is not stuffed to the point of narrow junk corridors leading from room to room, but I do have some drawers that are threatening to explode. It's just that when you buy dill pickles you also get a perfectly good reusable glass jar with them. Something must be done with the jar. We are constantly surrounded by free valuable resources, especially if you are able to appreciate small gifts.

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but it sure would be easy in our over the top throw away society to furnish an entire apartment for free. Buck 65, Canadian rapper, did just that. He furnished his entire apartment with free resources, and can be seen in an episode of MTV's "Cribs". I hate to admit I have watched "Cribs", but the Buck 65 episode is by far the best I have seen. He makes the rest seem, well, quite wasteful with all their money.

Just take a look at the "free" section (found under "for sale") of Craigslist in your community or a community near you. As long as you had a truck to haul free loot, and a roof to stash it under, a person could drive into a community such as Vancouver or Victoria with nothing but the skin on your bones and after a few days have everything you needed. You would be benefiting the community at large because if you don't take that couch it is going to end up being shot full of holes up some logging road by a camouflage mini-skirted AK-47 toting back county Rambette (sad, but true. Her boyfriend posted a video of it on youtube). That perfectly good couch will look much better in your living room.

In my drawer and box rummage-fest I found I that I am "richer than I think" (can I use that or has it been trade marked? I will only use this phrase if it is free). Yes, I found luxurious socks that I have never worn before. I found a free pack of playing cards, still hermetically sealed in cellophane, that I acquired from a case of Pilsner beer back when I used to buy beer. I have books on the shelf I have never read, and clothes I have not worn since the last time the NDP formed the government of BC.

I realized that my modest patio garden all came to me gratis. The many containers were saved from the recycling area of our building. I got the soil from a slump down the beach that would have been eroded away by the next high tide. Actually, I saved some nice flowers from the slump as well, and took those home to relocate into my free containers.

The strawberry plant was given to me by a elderly guerrilla gardener that was busted by her condo strata board. I was hired to tear out her extensive (and illegal, apparently) hard work. We quickly became friends as she, too, recognized the riches that abound where ever we look. She pleaded with me to take all her plants rather than toss them on the compost heap. I filled the back of my truck with her entire guerrilla garden and used what I could at home. The rest I took to a friends acreage where he used up everything else. Right now the strawberry flowers and reddening berries on my patio are reminding me of Elizabeth and Her Fantastic Illegal Garden. And my friend, Michael, enjoyed Elizabeth's wonderful perennials in his front yard. Free.

How can I feel rich when I exist on less than most people pay on their mortgages? Lowering ones expectations helps. Separating wants from needs is beneficial. But the most fun for me is recognizing the power of free. Not wanting makes me free. Anyone want (need?) a deck of brand new playing cards? I am willing to share my wealth... free.

Wanted: New Ideas

General Motors is not on the scrap heap yet, but will its make-over save it from ending up there eventually? Will the new leaner, meaner company be different enough to stay on the road, or will the wheels fall off, again, in the near future? My guess is the latter.

The governments of Canada and Ontario have pledged 9.5-billion to help in restructuring the once mighty company. If GM takes our money, then continues with the same ideas, its repeated failure is inevitable. Taxpayers should not be paying to prop up this dinosaur of an industry. The inventors of planned obsolescence have themselves become obsolete. Let them join the eight track and VCR. Their time has come and gone. Go gracefully. Go now. Let's evolve!

Driving a car is convenient and fun, but it is not necessary, and it is very expensive personally and environmentally. We need alternatives to individual large personal vehicles, and we need them now.

The alternative vehicle of today is the bicycle, the most efficient use of energy in the known universe. A quality bicycle will give years of service. Much of the maintenance can be done at home with a few basic tools. The fitness benefits are huge, as is the enjoyment of moving along under your own carbon-free power.

For longer trips, supportive infrastructure such as bicycle racks on hydrogen buses and allowing bikes on solar powered electric rail transit networks will help people get around without cars, and without oil.

At one time many cities in industrialized nations had steetcar, or trolley, systems. America had its systems, too. Today's "Red Rocket" streetcars in Toronto are part of a system that started in 1861 with cars drawn by horses. Major US cities had their own extensive systems. New Orleans has the longest continuously used streetcar system in the world. European cities never gave up their early trolley lines and use them to this day. Melbourne, Australia has the largest network in the world.

Even Sooke had its own passenger rail service between 1922 and 1931 when the Galloping Goose, a 30 passenger car plied the CNR rail line between Victoria and Sooke twice daily. Now the route has been transformed into a trail for cyclists and hikers. What happened in North America?

Partly what happened was the Great Streetcar Conspiracy of the mid-20th century. Between 1936 and 1950 a holding company in the US bought out over 100 electric-powered streetcar rail systems in 45 large cities and replaced them with General Motors buses. The rails were either torn out or paved over and streetcars were scrapped.

The holding company represented big players that would benefit from individualizing and streamlining commuters into buses, and then cars. Corporations such as General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil, and Phillips Petroleum did not single-handedly kill efficient light rail in American cities, but they did not help, either. The Supreme court of the United States found that some charges were warranted.

"In 1949, the defendants were acquitted on the first count of conspiring to monopolize transportation services, but were found guilty on the second count of conspiring to monopolize the provision of parts and supplies to their subsidiary companies. The companies were each fined $5,000, and the directors were each fined one dollar. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951.^[1]

The scandal's consequences were the rise of a permanent car culture in the United States and the lack of any cohesive intercity mass transit network." Wikipedia

Our painful addiction to cars is coming to an end, as shown by recent sales numbers. They have changed enough to send one of the largest corporations in the world to the scrap heap. It is time to get out of the Hummer and into a pair of hiking boots. The wonderful book "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" by Rebecca Solnit will make you feel like walking away from your car, GM or otherwise, forever. Cars are a mobility aid we can no longer afford to use.

GM is not a sound investment. We should be investing in new, big ideas. We need to take risks and be willing to try new and exciting things to solve our transportation challenges. We may have to re-uptake old ideas that worked.

Like street cars.

The Mean And The Greedy

Meet Michael Martin, former speaker of the British House of Commons, and current poster child for avarice while sucking from the public teat. He has been ousted now, the first speaker to be kicked out since it last happened in 1695. At that time Sir John Trevor was sacked for taking bribes.

Rodney Barker, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said Mr. Martin's departure shows Parliament is taking reform seriously.

“It won't solve anything at all, but if his successor could appear to be taking charge of things in a way that implements proper procedures, probity, and decent use of public money, that would be the very opposite of Michael Martin's position,” Mr. Barker said. “He has been seen as a supporter of the most greedy and the most mean.”

Is it not time we quit supporting the most greedy and mean among us? Speaking of which, the politicians here in British Columbia are busily following the same agenda. The minimum wage in this province has not increased in a decade, and welfare rolls are up almost 50% over last year. It is in this climate that the BC Liberals voted themselves generous wage and pension increases. The leader of the party, Gordon Campbell, gave himself a whopping 54 per cent wage hike -- a $89,000 raise.

Now the NDP in the BC legislature have decided, after initial opposition, to also take the wage and pension package. If the Green Party had a few seats in the legislature (and they would if we had opted for the Single Transferable Vote system in the referendum), I wonder if they would have taken the increase?

Our current system was made by humans, therefore humans can change it for a model more in line with our times and our current level of evolution. If we were starting out now, can you seriously say that the current system is the one we would choose to build for ourselves? A system in which the richest 2% in the world possess over half of all household wealth? Is this what we would vote for?

Or do the richest 2% somehow "deserve" such wealth? Don't they earn it, fair and square?

"Earned does not mean deserved. Due to the law of conservation of energy, one cannot gain wealth without taking it from somewhere. Due to the misfortune that nothing of value exists on this planet without some form of human claimant, all wealth must come about through exploitation of one human by another. So try to imagine how 2% of the world have come to acquire half of the world’s household wealth…or how they ‘earned’ it. Then try to understand the incredible violence that a word like ‘earned’ suggests." - Devin


Show me a great concentration of wealth and I will show you crime and corruption. That is the nature of our current system. What can you do? Be a rebel. Right now one of the most subversive things a citizen can do is stop buying stuff. Keep your money in a jar in the back yard. Do not support the mean and the greedy. Stop buying their stuff.

Get Out of Debt Slavery

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." - Will Rogers



Credit has its place in our modern world because some things are worth borrowing for (an education), and for convenience. Somewhere along the line of the debt train, though, we have been demoted from being valued passengers in cushy coaches to shoveling in the coal car. Now the whole system has run out of steam.

Garth Turner points out, "Canadian household debt has red-lined. The country’s accountants have just warned that families now owe $1.3 trillion, most personal debt on credit cards and LOCs. Sadly, 85% of us have unpaid credit card bills. Worse, a third of all families could not handle an unexpected $5,000 expense. Even worse, one in ten families could not pay a $500 bill."

The big banks are now expecting billions of dollars worth of write-offs as customers default on credit card balances. This will do nothing for economic recovery, nor will it reduce the suffering of those who were sucked into the illusion of wealth. Now they may be without work, and without access to money. When you are buying groceries with your credit card this spells trouble.

If you can not afford to pay your balance in full at the end of the month you have fallen into the trap. Before long you are like a small developing country with insurmountable IMF responsibilities . Unable to ever repay the principal, you are reduced to working just to make interest payments. In this situation we often turn to risky behaviour as the only possible way of ever retiring the balance.

Desperation follows, a willingness to sell your life, to do anything to get out of the hole. Individuals turn to crime, and countries open their borders to foreign exploitation. At the very least you have to take a job that you do not enjoy, if you can even find one these days. In BC welfare rolls have swelled by nearly 50% over this time last year. It is impossible to get out of debt without a job.

If you have a credit card pay off your balance in full every month. If you do have a large balance do all you can to pay it off as soon as you can. Then cut your credit card in tiny pieces and cancel your account.

The credit train deserves to be derailed. Quit shoveling coal for the top 10%'s benefit. All your stuff loses its lustre, anyway, when you sit down to calculate the interest paid, the stress experienced, and the work that must be done to acquire it. Debt free is the way to be.

Your Things Own You

Do you remember the wall posters that were around a while back saying, "He who dies with the most toys wins"? Some one forgot to tell Gandhi. The above photo shows his total worldly possessions at the time of his death. No toys. In March of 2009 these same simple items were bought by an Indian airline and liquor baron, Vijay Mallya, for 1.8 million U.S. dollars. Vijay Mallya would be on the "Toys" poster if it were printed today.

I don't see those posters around so much anymore. We have gone so overboard since then that we are finally starting to feel guilty about it. We just keep quiet now, and wonder why we still feel so unfulfilled. It would be much healthier to "pull a Gandhi" and see who can pass on with the fewest toys. If you can't fit it all in a small box you are disqualified.

The times that we feel the most free are the times we have the least stuff, generally. Childhood. The student life. Backpacking and camping. Traveling light overseas. Freed of encumbrances and responsibilities we are light and joyous. Unburdened and unfettered by the clutter and curses of consumer culture we become ourselves again. We have the space to remember who we are and what it is that is really important to us. What we want, not what others tell us we should want.

Confucius, Jesus, Gandhi, Buddha and others have taught the principles of a simple life with few possessions. Beyond what we need to survive, they have shown us, everything else is a distraction that prevents us from doing the important work. “And what's the work?" asks Allan Ginsberg, "To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.”

Our consumer culture is most certainly a drunken dumbshow. We are caught in its grip, mesmerized by shiny things and damn the consequences, the externalites. It is adding to the pain of living, and we are sacrificing our lives and the planet to purchase this pain. We have known for decades, perhaps centuries, that our progress currently is not sustainable, but we just can't seem to stop.

If humanity can not stop its over consumption, something will do it for us. Climate change, Peak Oil, aging boomers, flu epidemics, overpopulation, ecosystem collapse, drought, crop failure, and a number of other threats ensure that Mother Earth will get the final move in the return to a more balanced system. One that may or may not include us. Or developed countries can willingly adopt a way of life that only recent generations are not familiar with. That is, one with very few possessions.

Since 2000 Linda and I have been making an effort to not buy anything that we do not need. We wanted to adopt measures to reduce our consumption willingly, before being forced to later for what ever reasons. We have found that it is possible to be "rich" with less, and as we go along our quality of life is increasing despite our spending decreasing.

We know how difficult it is to cut back while surrounded by a culture of cut in line to get more. When I think about how I might reduce my consumption further I am reminded of the 1979 movie "The Jerk". Steve Martin in the lead role contemplates what he needs in the following scene:

"Well I'm gonna to go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this. [picks up an ashtray]

And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray.

And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need.

And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need.

I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure."

At first it is hard to let go of our things, but as time goes on we do not miss them. As we settle into a new life of experiences rather than work and things we are released from consumer bondage. Life becomes lighter, more real. The more you live without the extra baggage, the easier it gets. Soon a rich simple life flows quite naturally, and cognitive dissonance, that deadly stress producer, is reduced.

Our behaviour becomes more aligned with what we believe to be true. And what we know is that beyond a certain amount of possessions we fall prey to the law of diminishing returns. More stuff does not make our lives better. In fact, once past the point of "enough", the more stuff we get, the poorer the quality of life becomes. Ultimately, all your stuff has to be maintained, not to mention guarded, stored and paid for. The stuff begins to take over. It possesses you.

It is easy to accumulate stuff these days with lines of credit and such. It is much more challenging to see how little one can live on, and do the planet a much needed favour at the same time.When Gandhi passed away his possessions could fit into a small cardboard box. If I can get my possessions down to filling the box of my truck I will be happy for now. But I am aiming for the freedom of that small cardboard box.

Lower Your Expectations

Could you be happy with less? Content with a reasonable amount of nutritious food, a warm, dry, secure place to dwell, a small set of clothes, and supportive relationships in your immediate community? Would a simple life be enough?

If developed nations could get a handle on their desires the world would be a better place. We do not need any technological solution to lower our expectations. It costs no money. It saves money and resources. Money and resources that other parts of the world sorely need.

Thousands of children die every day due to not having enough. A fairly recent historical development is that now we also have thousands of people that die as a result of having too much. Obesity, cardiovascular disease, and stress-related illnesses all plague our cushy lifestyles of excess.

A leading causes of teen death in Africa is pregnancy and childbirth. The leading cause of death for North American teens is traffic accidents, while drunk or otherwise. For these teens, suicide is a leading cause of death as well. When we wanted our kids to have better lives than we had, this is not what we had in mind.

Developed nations suffer from a corporate-induced sickness that causes us to always want more. To get more we are driven to move faster, and to make more sacrifices, personally and environmentally.

We want more square feet, more stainless steel, more cars, more toys, more trips to Mexico, more fast food, more clothes, more booze, more, more, more. But the only answer now is to want less. The "more" thing is dead, buried in its own massive pile of putrid refuse.

In my own life lowering my expectations has freed me. I am free to live life at a slow, peaceful pace. I am free to appreciate the simple things in my life. My mind is becoming free of the corporate world's agenda, along with their slick visuals and sound bites. In the wreckage of capitalism all of that has lost its lustre.

More is the buzzword of those who live in a world of infinite resources. Less is the lesson for those of us who don't.

Making do with less in developed nations will allow those in third-world nations to have enough. Today we are constantly told that the only way out of our troubles is to spend more. More credit, more stuff. Never do you hear about more debt, more work, more cardiovascular disease, more stress, more death by too much. Will life with less really wreck our economy?

If the only way to save our economy is by constant spending and growth, and the wrecking of all natural systems life depends on, than let us let it fail. The sooner the better. Let us put the nails in the coffin and inter this burdensome, deadly plague once and for all.

We will experience benefits in all ways as soon as we give up our endless desire and replace it with lowered material expectations. We live in a finite system, and should operate on that truth.

This may be the first generation in North America that would benefit from having less. Our children should not be condemned to die from having too much, just as children in the third world should not be condemned to die from a lack of basic human needs.

Free yourself, heal your planet, help your 4 billion brothers and sisters that struggle to meet basic needs.

Lower your expectations.

This Just In - The Rat Race Has Been Cancelled

For longer than I have been alive the pace of life in the west has been ramping up dramatically. "The Rat Race", it came to be known. We have been running faster and faster for fewer returns in terms of personal happiness.

At the same time Big Corp. took over, using enticing messages in the new media of radio and TV to lure us into their trap. Soon we were moving to the city in record numbers, giving up our self-sufficient, simple lives for massively complicated, dependent ones. We all willingly stepped onto the treadmill, and haven't looked back since.

We sold out to Big Corp. We work for them longer and harder than ever before. We buy their stuff, and sacrifice our lives for the privilege . The Rat Race is a pressure cooker of stress as shown by our collective ill health. After 50 or so years of work most of us, if we even live long enough to retire, are too tired and unhealthy to enjoy our freedom.

Surrounded by all our neat stuff, we have become sick and unhappy. At the same time Big Corp. has been paying CEO's thousands of times what the average worker made.

What if we limited ourselves to our fair share of the world's resources? How much would that cost in western countries? Would it let us gain our freedom sooner?

I figure that our fair share (whatever scary, tiny amount that may be) would cost in Canada roughly 8 - 18 thousand dollars per year. How long would the average person have to work to make that much? Assuming a wage of 20 dollars an hour (average for Canadian workers in 2008), it would take approximately 10 to 23 weeks per year to earn the small pile of the earth's resources allocated to you.

You would not have much stuff, but think of all the time off you would have. Think of how uncomplicated your life might be. How much time you would have to reconnect with friends and family. To get healthy. To eat better. To help out in your community. To do things that benefit you and those around you, such as healing the environment.

Besides, when we have passed laws to limit consumption what use will we have for huge amounts of extra money? Conspicuous consumption is on the way out. On a planet where 27 000 children die every day due to preventable diseases, it seems a crime for us to be living the lives of luxury and excess that we do.

Thinking only about "Me, and All My Great Stuff" will soon be as socially unacceptable as smoking in public places is becoming. Think Gandhi and his little box of simple possessions, not Imelda Marcos, the world's best known shoe-collector.

Since The Great Recession began in 2007 the Rat Race Treadmill has been slowing. Our rickety system has been grinding to a halt. My recommendation is that you bail while you can, because everyone is trying to crank it all up again, even though we know that if we continue business as usual we will kill ourselves and everything else on the planet.

We can all become winners once again by abandoning this doomed race and taking back our lives for ourselves, our local community, and the environment.

Jump! jump! jump! before they get this damned treadmill cranked again.

The End of The Big Lie

The biggest lie of all: Consumption will make us happy

We have been lied to, and all the misspeaking and misdirection has created fear and confusion, as it is intended to do. Our basic human weaknesses have been exploited in order to benefit those that perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate the lies. And of course we have to look at our own individual responsibility, too. But the lies and propaganda are pretty persuasive.

Some classic fibs in my near 50 years?

• Cigarettes do not cause cancer.
• You need meat in your diet.
• Burning fossil fuels can't have an effect on the vastness of the atmosphere.
• We can never cut all the trees or catch all the fish because our forests and oceans are just too vast. 
• Plastic is a benign substance.
• A family can't live on a single income.
• Animals have no feelings and feel no pain.
• You can only marry someone of the opposite gender.
• Everyone has to work full time.
• People that don't have kids are weird.
• Vegetarians are weak.
• Life is getting better as we get more stuff.
• Real estate always goes up.
• Climate change is not happening.
• Corporate rule will benefit us all, and government works for the betterment of society.

I am not buying any of it anymore. I'm not buying the lies or the stuff.

I am taking charge of my life. It is time to go back to how humans have lived across the ages. The emphasis going forward will once again be on a life light on possessions, and heavy on community-minded thinking. The days of "ME" and "MY STUFF" are coming to an end, and just in time. Our future survival will depend on doing things differently.

I am voluntarily conducting my life differently. I am cutting the number of hours I work. I am fleeing from the smog and bustle of the city. I am changing where I go, and how I get there. I am looking at my diet, my leisure activities, and my self.

Along with a reduced income comes a reduced level of consumption. And with reduced consumption comes a slower paced, more local, freer life style unencumbered with the superfluities of modern life.

I vow to do the least amount of harm to my self, others, and the environment. My wish is that others will be inspired by my example and undertake a similar quest to see how they might live more gently on this planet.