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This German Woman Has Been Living Without Money For 16 Years (Here's how she did it...)
Business Insider ^ | 07/02/2013 | MANDI WOODRUFF

Posted on 07/02/2013 8:15:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

As we edge closer to a cashless society, some consumers are quietly challenging the idea of money in the first place––by giving it up completely.

Daniel Suelo, 50, traded his nine-to-five for dumpster diving and a cozy cave in Utah's canyonlands back in 2000.

But even before Suelo, there was Germany native Heidemarie Schwermer. In her early 50s, Schwermer decided to see what it'd be like to leave her cushy job as a psychotherapist and live money-free, a journey that's been documented in the film "Living Without Money."

Sixteen years later, she hasn't looked back. Schwermer, now pushing 70, recently took a pause during her stay in Hamelin, Germany to chat with Business Insider about why she decided to leave everything behind.

WWII refugees, Schwermer's family fled from Prussia to Germany in the 1940s. Her father had owned a successful coffee roastery and kept a nanny and full-time gardener on his payroll. "We were well-off but ended up as riff-raff," she says. "Then we became rich again and (we) had to defend it. I've always had to justify myself, whether we were rich or poor."

Throughout her life, she became fascinated with finding ways to live without money. A former teacher and psychotherapist, Schwermer formed Germany's first exchange circle, "Give And Take Central" in 1994. The group helped locals exchange simple services like babysitting or house cleaning for tangible goods. "I noticed that I needed money less and less," she told Business Insider. "And so I thought, I can try to live one year without money."

Schwermer attempted to live without money at least four times, she says, but it wasn't until a friend asked her to house sit for three months that she finally took the plunge. "I said, 'The time is right. Now I'll do it.'

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: cash; hobo; lazy; money; parasite; slackass
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1 posted on 07/02/2013 8:15:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

2 posted on 07/02/2013 8:16:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

She’s been in prison?


3 posted on 07/02/2013 8:18:32 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Democrats: Robbing Peter to buy Paul's vote.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Basically, she can “live without money” because other people have it and give her stuff.


4 posted on 07/02/2013 8:19:32 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Trade? (snicker, snicker)


5 posted on 07/02/2013 8:20:28 AM PDT by ken5050 (Due to all the WH scandals, MSNBC is changing its slogan from "Lean Forward" to "BOHICA")
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To: SeekAndFind

This woman has watched too much Star Trek.


6 posted on 07/02/2013 8:21:02 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: SeekAndFind
What she says is actually true: it's why there's no money in heaven and the streets are paved with gold. (First gold is seen as a divine-metal, as it doesn't rust/corrode; second, there's going to be no need for money, so gold could be useless in that sense good for nothing but to be thrown outside and trod upon by men so to speak.)

That said though, there's no way that such a system will work [globally] without Jesus-as-King ruling over all the nations and all the people.

7 posted on 07/02/2013 8:24:31 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark

As long as human life goes on, even if everyone were converted to Christ, money will still have its basic utility as “medium of exchange” and “store of value.” A price system conveys necessary information, and an efficient price system requires a unit of measure for comparison.


8 posted on 07/02/2013 8:27:32 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I want shrimp tacos.)
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To: SeekAndFind

She is not ‘living without money’. She is a Socialist European PARASITE who is living on OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.


9 posted on 07/02/2013 8:28:29 AM PDT by MeganC (A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll never need one again.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A bunch of us doing this would freak out the powers in Washington even more than we do by burning french fry oil in diesel engines.


10 posted on 07/02/2013 8:28:29 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Tax-chick

Which is why I said without Jesus-as-King, that is, the Returned Christ.


11 posted on 07/02/2013 8:29:07 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

“A bunch of us doing this would freak out the powers in Washington”

When I used to live in Los Angeles you could drive to 5th and Alameda and literally see THOUSANDS of people living like this. Trust me, no one in Washington gave a damn about them.


12 posted on 07/02/2013 8:30:59 AM PDT by MeganC (A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll never need one again.)
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To: Little Ray

Traveling on the train is a large part of her life and that requires the exchange of money. It’s not like the dirty paper never touches her hands.


13 posted on 07/02/2013 8:31:05 AM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A couch living drifter friend with no money, is nothing new.


14 posted on 07/02/2013 8:33:43 AM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: SeekAndFind

So essentially she is just bartering....

I barter all the time with an exchange token called “Money”....

Except the government thinks it owns a certain amount of my exchange tokens be I earn them, or want to give them to others for goods, or put them in a place other people can use them to fund other people’s projects and then get paid for keeping it there....

The “Blinded Authority Loving Law and Order freepers” would want to jail her sorry butt for tax evasion....

But they forget the reason she was able to live like this is not because she has discovered some “Utopia” she has just escaped the “Dystopia” that is Government Tax.....


15 posted on 07/02/2013 8:33:51 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: Cowboy Bob

She’s been in prison?

But she is evading taxes.....


16 posted on 07/02/2013 8:35:26 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: SeekAndFind
A lot of Obama voters live without money too.

YO, IT CALL WEAR FARE!


17 posted on 07/02/2013 8:36:53 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Someday our schools will teach the difference between "lose" and "loose")
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To: SeekAndFind

This woman proves that most people have no idea what “money” is.


18 posted on 07/02/2013 8:37:46 AM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Giving up what one has, for an esoteric personal goal, is far different from not having anything and seeking to better oneself.


19 posted on 07/02/2013 8:37:50 AM PDT by Michael.SF. (Obama lied, Stevens died, now Obama covers up the lies.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Old hippies never die. They just scrounge away.


20 posted on 07/02/2013 8:37:55 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Remember... the first revolutionary was Satan."--Russian Orthodox Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov)
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