by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
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When you think about your purchases, you may be astonished by how many of them are things that have nothing to do with survival or even with making you happy. What don't you need.^ You don't need those dumb trinkets you buy when you go on vacations, and you might not need those expensive vacations as much if your daily life were more fulfilling. You don't need that soda you drink every afternoon, and if you stop drinking it you might not need to go to a dentist as frequently either. You don't need a wardrobe with a different outfit for every day of the month, and if you're not going to your job at the office or the mall every day, you might not need to keep buying the latest fashions before your older clothes even start to show wear.
Limit the amount of advertising you expose yourself to?^that's the propaganda of senseless consumption, and it can influence your tastes and tendencies even if you're wise to it. Be suspicious of socialized fashion and beauty and hygiene standards, especially the ones that demand you invest money in cosmetics, diets, and deodorants. In
What You Don't Need
On the road, you can wash your clothes in the watertight stuff-sack your sleeping bag usually lives in.
Unemployment 577
when you move into a new space,
you can get the plates, glasses, and
silverware you need from a nearby
coffee shop or cafeteria; be sure to
return them when you leave?reduce,
reuse, recycle! Try the same thing with
airplane pillows and blankets, if you
ever have a round-trip ticket?it'll help
you travel light. Imagine the flight
attendants wondering how a pillow
could get so dirty in a few hours, when
they find it after your return flight!
You can keep a little warmer on those
cold, cold nights by eating foods high
in fat an hour or so before you go to
sleep. It may also help to switch the
layers of your clothing, so the one
beside your skin is not damp with
perspiration. No matter how cold it
is, don't sleep in more than two pairs
of socks?this will constrict your
circulation, without which no amount
of clothing can keep your feet warm.
Unemphyment 578
fact, be suspicious of all cultural conventions that necessitate some kind of consumption: expensive sports tickets instead of games at the park, Prozac prescriptions or costly therapy instead of networks of emotional support, keeping up to date with pop culture instead of setting out on your own adventures. Minimize your addictions: cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine will keep you locked into the cycle of employment and consumption if you can't break yourself of dependency on them. Take heart: as you work less, all the indulgences you once needed to make life bearable will probably feel less necessary. Try to center the ways you find happiness and the ways you evaluate your worth around what you do with your day-to-day life, rather than what you ovm..
Transportation can be a big challenge, unless you live in a small town or self-contained neighborhood. Bicycling is the cheapest and best means, and relying on public transportation can also save money, though in some areas these methods of getting around are difficult or unavailable. It may be, though, that the main reason you need a car is to get to work every day and if you can restructure your employment situation, the car you had in order to get to the job that paid for it will become unnecessary. The same goes for your life ambitions?if you want to grow up to be a high-powered executive, you'll have to spend seven years and seventy thousand dollars getting degrees, but if it's a life of freedom and adventure you want, you'll do better to start investing in those right away instead. The pressure to go to college is part of the protection racket, anyway?they say you need to go to college to get a job, but once you're saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, you have to get a job just because you went to college. You can use the libraries and talk to the professors for free, and if you do have it to spend, couldn't aH that money be used for something more worthwhile.^
If you've already amassed a debilitating debt to credit card companies or from student loans, and you're afraid you'll have to spend the rest of your life slaving to pay it off, fear not. With every kind of debt but student loans, you can declare bankruptcy, or just
