Doing Without Money (on purpose!)

Very much a retreat from reality.

I'm not saying there's nothing we could learn from this, but for the wider community it's just not practical. How would he cope with serious illness, old age, six weeks of frozen ground with no one handy from whom to scrounge?

I suspect he may not realise how much he's still relying on the rest of society to keep him alive. He's still wearing manufactured clothes, for example.

What a dick! The rest of us live without money because we have to and this guy chooses to??? That's like cutting off your legs because fish don't have them and they seem to be doing just fine. teh lamez.

Another show-off. Thre would be no civilization if that mindset were prevalent. And he is still very much a freeloader (public library etc).

Soon to come: "A Vagabond in America" book deal and movie contract.

"Thre would be no civilization if that mindset were prevalent. And he is still very much a freeloader (public library etc)."

I agree- he's a virtual parasite. He has friends who feed him, but surprise- THEY have to earn money to buy the food he consumes. Someone else has to earn the money to fund the library. Someone has to earn the money to fund the women's shelter. If everyone went this route we'd all be cold, hungry, and sick before very long.

Stories like these seem to pop up every couple of months. I think it's the same mindset as people that flaunt their wealth just on the other end of the scale.

We dont care if you live in a cave, we just dont want to hear about it. Good for you, now go back to your cave and shut up.

"Soon to come: “A Vagabond in America” book deal and movie contract."

i wonder if his book would read like thoreau's "walden".......

While his lifestyle is unsustainable and impossible to replicate on this planet with 6B people, it can server a purpose. Read Walden by Thoreau http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html.

He's got his head mighty far up his own butt. But he's harmless.

Whenever I see this sort of thing , I awlays think we never hear about him getting 500 bucks from his mom or whatnot.

Ugh. This sort of lifestyle is the luxury of those who have the option to consume or not. People all over the world would gladly die so that their families would lifestyle that this guy could have.

Totally agree with Oracle Goddess. Another person thinking that they're better than the rest of us, nm that they're depending on their friends & others (who are like the rest of us) to keep them alive.

I'd love to have the guts to live in a cave. Without the handouts, of course.

Meh - Don Schader of Albuquerque has been doing much the same thing for as long as I can remember now. 'Cept he doesn't live in a cave. And he bathes in his own urine.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/02/11/extreme-personal-finance-america-on-10-a-day/

Good luck with your attention whoring cave guy.

Yet another upper-middle-class whacko with a holier than thou attitude.

Everything he mooches, his jeans, his water bottle, his electricity, the internet he communicates with, all has been created by people who work and co-ordinate their efforts through the exchange of money.

He should move to Somalia and try to be a vagabond there. They'd beat him to death and take his stuff.

is it me or does he look pretty clean for being a vagabond?

I dont think he is doing it for attention. His life experiences have obviously had a big effect on his mindset. Although, I think its ironic that he survives on the leftover of what he is rebelling against. Without the money-grubbing society he avoids, he wouldn't survive.

If really wants to do it the right way, he should watch "Into the Wild". That guy tried it without any help from the outside world, and he did not survive.

I think "meh" about sums it up.

It's Walden, no?

While it doesn't take away from the quality of the writing, Thoreau basically lived someone's backyard in a cottage and made frequent trips to town. Not exactly roughing it even for the standards of the time. It'd be like you living in your shed and coming to the house for showers and food.

I'm working on this, though to a less extreme degree. Self sufficient house (water collection, solar power, wind power, greywater/sewage treatement, indoor/outdoor garden, chickens/ducks/goats). Soon I'll have enough saved up so the dividends I receive will pay for the annual medical coverage I desire. Then I just need to earn enough for luxuries, really. That's the way to do it, not live in a cave sponging off friends.

We have a guy like that over here in Germany, he lives in the woods for some years now, can´t remember his name, he even head a girlfriend for some time, but the couldn´t go without a real toilet.

I'd be suprised if this fellow gets any sex. Either before or after his big lifestyle change. So no, this won't catch on.

Spot on felix the cat, took the words right out of my mouth. What did PT Barnum say, there's one born every minute?

He's probably already sending out feelers for a book and possibly a reality tv show/movie deals, courtesy of his facebook account (via the same friends that feed him from time to time).

Bling bling!

Hippie.

Splint Chesthair, bravo on the awesome Mstie Space Mutiny reference!

If he really just wanted to live out in the middle of nowhere I'd be fine with it, but only if he survived by hunting/fishing/gathering/farming his own food. But he is merely a tool. A lazy, worthless tool.

Seems like he's lived a pretty balance life before, much more socially conscious than the callous people posting their frustrated anger here. He's experienced cultures the rest of you can't understand -- most definitely none of the angry gripes posted here are from people who would make a sacrifice like volunteering for Peace Corp. I can only assume he saw things he found really distasteful in our society, cultural things he just wanted to minimize his contact with. He's living his life the way he wants and the minimal resources he does use is hardly a burden to society in any way. If friends want to feed him every so often, that's what friends do. For those of you who give something only if you expect something in return, that's a sad way to live. If he wants to use the library every so often, so what? The building will be open to the public for certain hours anyway, no one has to make a special trip just to open it up solely for his use.
Maybe some day he'll decide to return a more conventional lifestyle, maybe he won't. Either way it's surprising to see so many people here so upset about a simple human interest story.

I turned off the air conditioner for a couple of hours yesterday.

edvim:

First, you're not going to persuade anyone of anything if you start off telling your readers they "can't understand" something, calling them callous, and assuming their posts come from "frustrated anger."

Second, I don't think anyone's begrudging this guy the right to live how he wants; what's bothersome is the smugness that radiates through everything he says. He talks as though he has seceded from society and is superior to all of us grunts who actually interface with civilization. But even as he disdains civilization and all that it entails, he's benefiting from, and even leeching off of, its existence.

If he wants to live off of the discards from society, great; that's no trouble to anyone. But to do so while condemning society seems morally untenable to me. It's like a roommate who trashes the apartment, never contributes to running the house, and yet still acts as though he's doing you a favor by letting you live with him.

Briannana +1.

Well, he has a headstart on all of us. When it all falls to shit, he'll already know how to live. And you'll all be clambering for your gov't to help you.

I don't see where he feels he is better than us. I do see where he feels he is better than what he used to be. You feel the way you do because you read into it too much. It's the Haves against the Have Nots for an entirely warped different reason this time. Yikes...

Reminds me a of a friend of mine:

http://www.wiredgypsy.com/homeless.htm

I lived in moab utah for over 12 years. I love the area and i know right where the canyon is that this guy is living in. It's on state land and its illegal to overnight camp there. It is truly paridise though and you could live pretty well on just the biome the canyon creates the fremont indians lived in that valley for hundreds of years. Heres the part I dont like about this guy. mill creek canyon has 2 branches left and right. From the article I read he is squatting in left hand canyon. This is a protected area and possibly the jewel of moabs summertime hiking and swimming close in town. This area is not known to avarage tourists most people don't even know its there. Its magnificant clean fresh water creeks waterfalls and lots of trees and 200 foot sandstone cliffs on both sides. And this fucking hippie reject is living and shitting all over it. the fires he burns are staining the cave walls hes taking up space that animals need for raising there young his presence there is disturbing a very very fragile enviroment. I hope he gets eaten by a mountain lion! which I have seen there and bears. Stop washing your nasty ass in our creek. Get a fucking job and rent a trailer you fucking hobo and get the fuck out of our canyon!

star: Yep, that was what I thought of, Into The Wild. This guy needs an education on what being poor really means.

Looks like everybodies giving you the thumbs down caveguy, time to start looking for another shtick, at least you did'nt have a lot of capital invested in this one.

To each their own, I guess. But I hate self created martyrs. I suspect some unresolved issues.

what MadMolecule said.

Maybe Daniel Suelo's purpose in life is to serve as a bad example. I showed this article to my son and told him, "If you don't do well in school, you'll end up like *that* guy. You'll live in a cave and forage for food."

Yeesh. I don't get that he's being smug at all. I think he's just living in a way that he deems to be positive. He's not hurting anyone and he doesn't mooch off of others...I mean, he takes other people's TRASH. Things that were discarded in the first place. So what if his friends feed him from time to time? My parents and my friends feed me every once in a while, too.

I can understand why he might want to detach himself from conventional society. I was in the Peace Corps in Togo and that experience has made me realize how much excess we live with in much of the United States. And, we don't even think twice about it.

At least he's tried to have a positive impact on this world and if he's into being a cave hobo, so what? It seems like he's done a lot of helpful things in the past.

lol shaolinrock, well said.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I found the way he is choosing to live facinating. I wouldn't want to, but who am I to judge him living that way.

I also enjoy reading about these sort of experiments, like "no impact man" and such. While I don't intend to try anything that exteme, I usually learn a little something from them. Things like living off the grid, urban homesteading...it's in the same vein of trying to become less dependent. It takes some loons to make you think of different ways.

I now am preparing to live in a similar way of life. We did for many years before we were overpowered by people who knew no better. I do not hold any grudges, but my ancestors, and not long ago, lived off the land and killed only what was necessary. Look at what has been done to this land in less then 175 years. How long do you think you can continue at this pace? I too have survived for many years on no money, but am now a wealthy man, but money is not the most important thing in life... it does not rank in the top 10 important things. That is all.

Every now and then I envy homeless people. Usually at 5:00 AM on Monday morning or when I make a mortgage payment, but then I turn on the air or use my own indoor plumbing and it goes away.

Who can argue with a mans harmless method of coping with society? I only argue his choice to publicise. He may encourage a few idiots to encroach his territory forcing him to flee his beloved little Walden.

ROFL Chuck

Go live in a real foraging environment, an African tribe for example, or else it's just parasitism.

Shaolinrock + 1
MadMolecule +1

"He’s experienced cultures the rest of you can’t understand." -Edvim
I have experienced other cultures. That is what makes me more appreciative and concious of the little things that you seem to assum that "we" do not treasure.
I use my money to contribute to "welfare" societies, instead of holing up in a cave and trying to glamourize mysyelf.

Should there be a freak accident and capitalist society fails... we're pretty fuct.

He's got a fricking BLOG!

The sad part is he's trying to glamorize what's a sad fact of life for many people, and he's only making excuses for his failures. If I were a homeless guy in Moab, I'd kick his ass.

this guy is simply crazy.if he doesnt want money,y does he eat from people who use MONEY to buy theri food,even the cloths he wear.