Daniel Suelo has been living without money since 2000. As he states:
I’ve been totally without cents since Autumn of 2000 (except for 1 month in 2001). I don’t use or accept money or conscious barter – don’t take food stamps or other government dole.
You can read about it here. It’s an interesting story, but he basically lives in Moab, Utah and he basically lives in a cave:
My primary home is a cave in the desert canyon near Moab, Utah. The latest cave I’ve been staying in is maybe 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall inside and 15 feet back. It has a tear-drop shaped opening, part of a crevice in a cliff wall. I cover it with plastic in the winter & it stays fairly warm even without fire. But I built a little wood heating & cooking stove out of a large tin, with connected cans as a flew, which takes the smoke out a small hole conveniently above the entrance. Just a couple small sticks will cook a meal & make the cave warm & toasty. The cave is very stealth, hard to find, & doesn’t even look like a cave even when you’re close by. The entrance is south-facing, high on a ledge, meaning it gets sun most days in the winter. I can sunbathe naked up there in the dead of winter while the temperatures are frigid in the canyon below as well as in town!
He upkeeps a blog where he upkeeps it at the Moab Public Library. You can also check out his philosophy on living without money on a site that he also keeps up. An interesting fellow!
This guys is interesting to say the least. I can understand wanting to live without money, however the part he is doing seems to be the easy part. Living without money is a really good survival training ,however it doesnt seem very smart. Sure spend maybe a year or more doing it that way you get that fill. However I would like to see this guy actually find some idea to make money and live like that. Then spend it actually making a difference. Instead of being a hermit in some cave somewhere..
Nick, what you say makes some sense based on the culture you live in. On the other hand it would defeat the purpose of what this man is trying to achieve. If he still works but doesn’t need any of the money then sure he can donate to a ‘worthy cause’. However, the point he is trying to make is that these people don’t need the possessions they think they do. He would hamper his point by not allowing them to figure out the uselessness of material or fiscal goods. It runs along the concept of give a man a fish. If he gives others the things they could live without then he never teaches them that these ‘needs’ aren’t needs at all. You don’t have to buy food from a grocery store and he wants to exemplify that. So while it may not seem ‘smart’ that is only because you are thinking in the realm of consumer based capitalism that you live in. People have inherent worth even if they don’t ‘contribute’ to society in such a way you find valuable. The Consumer capitalism way of viewing people is what he is turning from not work its self.
He sounds hot.
I don’t buy it (pun intended). I’ll bet this guy takes advantage of at least some form of living subsidized by us. He hunts everything? He never hitch hikes, uses public transportation, or anything of that matter? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Why isn’t it possible? After all, millions of people did it thousands of years ago. I guess the only thing he’s doing is going to the library to update his blog, but other than that, I think it’s possible.