The Really Really Free Market

I get asked for spare change almost every day by someone on the street. But I always say no.

It isn't that I'm stingy. It's just that, according to the principles of reality, there can be no such thing as extra money.

We have a system. People receive quantities of stored value (money) in exchange for units of perceived value (work). Said quantities of stored value are then utilized by said people to obtain accouterments (food, shelter, clothing).

The higher the perception of value is for someone's units, the more stored value they can accumulate and the more eclectic accouterments they can acquire (skateboards, balloons, personal assistants).

This paradigm is known as "the economy." Exchanges of value within "the economy" are known as "transactions."

So when someone on the street asks me if I have any spare change, I have no choice. The only honest answer I can give is no. Since I perceive no value in being asked for money by a stranger, there is therefore no basis for a transaction, resulting in the absence of an economy, necessitating the nonexistence of any money, let alone extra money.

This makes me sad.

But thankfully, the days when the economy is based on trading are ending.

What will a new economy based on sharing look like?


Human beings assembled informally, giving away whatever they have for free.


Other human beings taking whatever they believe they can use from whatever is being offered.


The economy of sharing proliferates giving. "Free trade" is a contradiction.

Think of it as a "hand-me-up."