I just started reading The Man Who Quit Money, the story of Daniel Suelo, and it seemed as good as any subject for today’s drawing. Per the description: “In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings—all thirty dollars of it—in a phone booth. He has lived without money—and with a newfound sense of freedom and security—ever since.” He lives in caves in the wilderness of Utah.

I found this interview with the man as fascinating as the book.

Here is his answer to whether he is crazy or not:

A crazy man does not think himself crazy, so my opinion on the matter is meaningless 🙂 People will have to judge my sanity for themselves.

But it would be nice if we lived in a world that considered it crazy to cause harm to ourselves, others, and our environment or to praise those who do cause such harm. Then we’d have to say we live in a truly crazy civilization. A sane society would consider it crazy to kill living things and destroy food and water supplies in order to amass something that nobody can eat or drink, like gold, silver, and money. It’s crazy to sacrifice reality to the idol of illusion

And here is his response to a question about what action he thinks other people could take who are inspired by his story:

Somebody once commented that our cities and towns could not function without money. But I say they and the world can’t function right now in the present system.

Take classic American suburbia, for example. People don’t know their neighbors, and everybody has their own cars, computers, TVs, lawn mowers, washing machines, etc, etc, as well as stockpiles of food and land they could grow food on. All we need is right here, but the only thing that’s holding us back is not physical reality, but belief, dogma. What if we actually spoke to our neighbors and agreed to share, like we learned in kindergarten and in church? What if we realized we could share cars, computers, washing machines, have dinners together, etc, which would not only save us expense, but would save expense on the environment, and, as a bonus, put smiles on our lonely faces? Then cities and technology would start serving us, rather than us serving them. But what’s holding us back? Not reality, not scarcity, but only our thinking!

All we need is right here.