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How to live for free in America


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#1 redlion

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 08:00 PM

Link!

Excerpt:

"Our whole society is designed so that you have to have money," Daniel Suelo says. "You have to be a part of the capitalist system. It's illegal to live outside of it."

Suelo has defied these laws. His primary residence is the canyons near Arches National Park, where he has lived in a dozen caves tucked into sandstone nooks. In the fall of 2002, two years after quitting money, he homesteaded a majestic alcove high on a cliff, two hundred feet across and fifty feet tall. Sitting inside and gazing into the gorge below felt like heralding himself to the world from inside the bell of a trumpet.

Suelo's grotto was a two-hour walk from pavement, and he settled in for the long haul. He chipped at the rocky ground to create a wide, flat bed, and lined it with tarps and pads and sleeping bags that had been left out with someone else's trash. He built wood-burning cook-stoves from old tin cans. He learned to forage for cactus pods, yucca seeds, wildflowers, and the watercress that grew in the creek. He drank from springs, bathed in the creek. From a chunk of talus he carved a statue, a ponderous head like some monolith from Easter Island.


At the Atlantic, via Fark

Totally awesome guy. I envy him. He's also totally right. It's almost impossible to live in the modern world without being integrated into the capitalist system via bankcards, phones, cars (or public transit) all of which must be paid for.

Discuss this awesome guy, and his mathematical lifestyle. Rhombus!

#2 Icey Defeat

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 08:02 PM

That guy is a boss. Love that people have the guts to do this.

#3 Aerophoria

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 08:08 PM

Kind of wish I could live like that... But I would probably go into withdrawal from having no computer or internet access :/

#4 TamerVirus

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 08:10 PM

Wow. Life without money....

#5 Pamplemousse

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 08:10 PM

That guy is so amazing. I'm envious of such a peaceful life.@____@
...But I have to agree with Aerophoria, I'd not be able to live away from the computer/internet.



#6 Melchoire

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 09:53 PM

I wonder how he would fare living homeless up in the north somewhere where the winters are cold, wet and seemingly endless....I hate this weather we've been having lately.

#7 Cyo

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 11:16 PM

So he's homeless in a warm as shit place, big whoop.

#8 WharfRat

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 11:21 PM

(Excuse this post as I just got home from a lengthy night out at the pub...)

I had a book about this at one time... Not this particular guy, but I'm pretty sure it was titled something like "How to live in America for free." The entire book detailed ways in which you could scam the system for free rides, food, shelter, etc. Listed all the cons in the book (so to speak...) and was geared mostly at social engineering. It was an interesting read... If I can find it somewhere on my hard drive I'll upload it to megaupload somewhere for others if you are interested. (Most of the stuff doesn't work any more... it was written in the 60's when a lot of these scams could take place but now the corporations have caught on...)

I can only remember a few examples right now... such as hitchhiking, getting left over food from the meat market at the end of the night/week, etc.

Off to search a 6 y/o hard drive to see if it is still somewhere on here... :p

#9 Melchoire

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Posted 16 March 2012 - 11:39 PM

(Excuse this post as I just got home from a lengthy night out at the pub...)

I had a book about this at one time... Not this particular guy, but I'm pretty sure it was titled something like "How to live in America for free." The entire book detailed ways in which you could scam the system for free rides, food, shelter, etc. Listed all the cons in the book (so to speak...) and was geared mostly at social engineering. It was an interesting read... If I can find it somewhere on my hard drive I'll upload it to megaupload somewhere for others if you are interested. (Most of the stuff doesn't work any more... it was written in the 60's when a lot of these scams could take place but now the corporations have caught on...)

I can only remember a few examples right now... such as hitchhiking, getting left over food from the meat market at the end of the night/week, etc.

Off to search a 6 y/o hard drive to see if it is still somewhere on here... :p


Sounds a lot like "Steal this Book" by Abbie Hoffman...

I've read some of the chapters before, he talks about how to grow pot, shoplift records using pizza boxes, getting free buffalos from parks departments, etc...

#10 peepole

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 04:49 AM

i wish i could live like a hobbit too. i hate paying for stuff.

#11 onlyme

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 06:55 AM

i wanna live this life. naow!

#12 WharfRat

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 08:09 AM

Sounds a lot like "Steal this Book" by Abbie Hoffman...

I've read some of the chapters before, he talks about how to grow pot, shoplift records using pizza boxes, getting free buffalos from parks departments, etc...

Actually, I think that is the book I was talking about! :p

(No-go on the HDD, only e-books I have any more are chemistry books... :rolleyes:)

#13 Melchoire

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 11:33 AM

Actually, I think that is the book I was talking about! :p

(No-go on the HDD, only e-books I have any more are chemistry books... :rolleyes:)


I linked to free online version =P

It's a very interesting read. It's really too bad that it's no longer relevant. I'd love to get my hands on a free buffalo.

#14 NapisaurusRex

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 11:37 AM

Sounds a lot like "Steal this Book" by Abbie Hoffman...

I've read some of the chapters before, he talks about how to grow pot, shoplift records using pizza boxes, getting free buffalos from parks departments, etc...


I haven't thought about this book in forever... the library I went to had to turn in records of the people who checked it out, so I stole it found an alternative source instead.

#15 Melchoire

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 11:47 AM

I haven't thought about this book in forever... the library I went to had to turn in records of the people who checked it out, so I stole it found an alternative source instead.


Jeez, when was this?

#16 NapisaurusRex

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 12:28 PM

Jeez, when was this?


2003? 2004? Not too long ago.

#17 Jiayu

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 05:40 PM

When I saw the title I thought the answer would be to get put into prison. This also works.

#18 Melchoire

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 07:20 PM

2003? 2004? Not too long ago.


Can't believe they were still doing that back then :S

When I saw the title I thought the answer would be to get put into prison. This also works.


That's an old joke that gets repeated too often. Between the 23 hours in a cell, the shit food, complete lack of privacy and sodomy one could hardly call it a life...

#19 Jiayu

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 08:52 PM

That's an old joke that gets repeated too often. Between the 23 hours in a cell, the shit food, complete lack of privacy and sodomy one could hardly call it a life...


That's true, and I agree, but one could say similar things about living alone in the wilderness.

#20 redlion

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 09:25 PM

So he's homeless in a warm as shit place, big whoop.

As always, your post does not fail to illuminate your position, in this case geographical. It does fail, however, to enlighten us at all.

One could argue that man's original environment is that selfsame "warm as shit place" eg the Horn of Africa. No one and nothing made you go live in some sub-arctic hell hole.

That's true, and I agree, but one could say similar things about living alone in the wilderness.

The fact that this man lived alone would tend to countermand the sodomy, the fact that he is in the wilderness would counter the privacy concern, and the fact that there is nothing stopping him from having a wife or a friend out there would counter the isolation.

The only thing you could say is similar about the situations would be the shitty food. That is, assuming he was eating only what he could find in the desert of Arizona.

#21 Cyo

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 10:48 PM

As always, your post does not fail to illuminate your position, in this case geographical. It does fail, however, to enlighten us at all.

One could argue that man's original environment is that selfsame "warm as shit place" eg the Horn of Africa. No one and nothing made you go live in some sub-arctic hell hole.


Don't you go calling my country a hell hole.

#22 Jiayu

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 10:55 PM

The fact that this man lived alone would tend to countermand the sodomy, the fact that he is in the wilderness would counter the privacy concern, and the fact that there is nothing stopping him from having a wife or a friend out there would counter the isolation.

The only thing you could say is similar about the situations would be the shitty food. That is, assuming he was eating only what he could find in the desert of Arizona.


I didn't mean that people would face the same hardships, but there are people who would prefer to be in prison than live alone in the wild.

#23 redlion

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Posted 18 March 2012 - 02:05 PM

Don't you go calling my country a hell hole.

You called mine a warm as shit place. Same difference.

I didn't mean that people would face the same hardships, but there are people who would prefer to be in prison than live alone in the wild.

I can take that at face value I guess. But there is nothing requiring solitude, this man simply chose to live alone.

#24 The Awesome Max

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Posted 18 March 2012 - 11:22 PM

its all well and good, but even the barter system in a society is bound to collapse eventually.

#25 iargue

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Posted 19 March 2012 - 04:46 PM

Fun Fact: Minecraft was based on this guys life story.


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