Let's be franc, that's pretty awesome.

What a happy ending to communism for that story. It's so beautiful. Why hasn't the world tried this sooner?

muck4doo: What a happy ending to communism for that story. It's so beautiful. Why hasn't the world tried this sooner?

Whole advanced civilizations have come and gone without their citizens ever needing to go the shop next door to make change.

FTFA: "Her small venture was a place where anyone could trade stuff and skills for other things and skills they needed, without a single coin or banknote changing hands. Old clothes could be traded in return for kitchen appliances, and car service rendered in return for plumbing services, and so on."

Can't do that in the states, the IRS wants its cut. We had an exchange something like that in our area and it got shut down. If you trade for something of value, or you receive a service, you are supposed to report the value of that good or service as income. And then the state steps in and asks "where's the sales tax?". The government doesn't like it if you try to go off the grid. If they catch you, they make an example of you as a warning to others.

Oh, and the woman in the store is a bit loonie.

What some call "barter" others call "tax evasion."

So she gave up thaler money?

Wait until she gets really sick. Not wishing anything on her, but what if she gets a major illness as she ages?

"So you decided to be a bum."

pgh9fan: Wait until she gets really sick. Not wishing anything on her, but what if she gets a major illness as she ages?

Pretty sure germany has nationalized medical, an ex in laws parents still live there and he hates the system since unless you are about to die they weren't giving treatment to him so he came to the states for treatment.

Heidemarie doesn't even have health insurance as she didn't want to be accused of stealing from the state, and says she relies on the power of self-healing whenever she gets a little sick.

Uhhhhh...I think I see some potential problems ahead.

Something tells me that although she lives without money, she isn't without money either.

Shostie: Baht what will she do when she's too old and frail to do these odd jobs?

You don't ever become "too old and frail". People like this work until they drop dead, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

The obnoxious part is that she thinks she's on to something when really she's lucky and simple-minded. Now, simple-minded doesn't mean stupid, but it means one's mind is kept engaged by doing stuff like washing dishes. Me, I'd go mad. And someone with a debilitating condition isn't as likely to last.

You don't need money if you have a vagina. What kind of "services" do you think she was performing?

I knew this story would say she made her living in trade.

Coelacanth:
Whole advanced civilizations have come and gone without their citizens ever needing to go the shop next door to make change.

It's a little easier when you can break the money into pieces and they retain proportional value. I tear a $2 bill in half, and I have two worthless pieces of green paper with interesting art on them.

DarthBrooks: [www.wearysloth.com image 320x240]

What's it like working for a Nazi, Eddie? Is he paying you in dollars or reichmarks?



I may not make an honest buck, but I'm 100% American.
And I don't work for no two-bit Nazi.


Eddie Valentine 2012

I hope she doesn't have colon problems later on, otherwise she'll be shilling for some serious medical treatment.

pgh9fan: Wait until she gets really sick. Not wishing anything on her, but what if she gets a major illness as she ages?

Self-healing! (aka Death)

Yen will she realize this doesn't work in a modern society. What a doubloon.

It just seems that she's just shilling for her store.

Comic Book Guy: I hope she doesn't have colon problems later on, otherwise she'll be shilling for some serious medical treatment.

My dad had a problem with his colon. It led to excessive farthing.

Surly U. Jest: Comic Book Guy: I hope she doesn't have colon problems later on, otherwise she'll be shilling for some serious medical treatment.

My dad had a problem with his colon. It led to excessive farthing.

That sounds like a rial shiatstorm.

Comic Book Guy: Surly U. Jest: Comic Book Guy: I hope she doesn't have colon problems later on, otherwise she'll be shilling for some serious medical treatment.

My dad had a problem with his colon. It led to excessive farthing.

That sounds like a rial shiatstorm.

Yeah, no kidding. Yuan day my Dad, Franc, had an attack after dinar that was so bad he thought he injured his colon. It did leave a mark, so he had to take a baht.

Coelacanth: muck4doo: What a happy ending to communism for that story. It's so beautiful. Why hasn't the world tried this sooner?

Whole advanced civilizations have come and gone without their citizens ever needing to go the shop next door to make change.

Gone being the key word there. Nothing is stopping any nation from switching back to the barter system. And yet none do without something like the complete collapse of their economy necessitating it.

Trading chickens for milk makes a lot of sense when everything available to you is within walking distance. Farther than that and those become cumbersome and tend to spoil.

The nice thing about money is that it stores well and is easy to transport.

BigBooper: Can't do that in the states, the IRS wants its cut. We had an exchange something like that in our area and it got shut down. If you trade for something of value, or you receive a service, you are supposed to report the value of that good or service as income. And then the state steps in and asks "where's the sales tax?". The government doesn't like it if you try to go off the grid. If they catch you, they make an example of you as a warning to others.Oh, and the woman in the store is a bit loonie.

Europe has VAT rather than sales tax, so obviously trading second hand goods with each other accrues no tax normally (as otherwise the seller would be able to claim back the portion of VAT for the decrease in value of the item since they bought it, rather than the government getting any more tax). The income from trading those items could be taxable in other ways - for example a second hand book shop has to pay tax, or someone buying and selling on ebay or amazon could potentially be liable for income tax if they made enough money on the items for HMRC to be interested (this wouldn't including selling items you bought new for example, only making money buying and selling).

Doing jobs for other people and being paid in kind would accrue income tax liability, but again it would only matter if the scale is large enough for the tax authority to become interested, so the more successful such a scheme became (and the more news articles about it), the more likely the people taking part would get investigated.

/IANAA, etc.

OMG.. the woman is a genius, she just re-invented bartering that all societies relied on before coming up with the invention or concept of money.
/sarcasm

Good for her tho.

Hilariously, she doesn't use her state's social services, but instead believes in the power of "self healing". When she collapses from whatever untreated ailment finally makes it past the bulwark of her belief-system, she'll still be picked up off the street by an ambulance and treated at a hospital, pretty much wiping out all the value of the vital dishwashing service she's provided in the last 15 years, and then some. Also, barter systems are too inefficient to give rise to specialized professions like doctors, let alone provide the medicines, tools and research required to allow them to function effectively, so far only currency-systems are able to create that level of efficiency.

She's just riding the coattails of an established currency-based society; If everyone did as she did, the system would break into bits almost instantly as consumer and producer repeatedly failed to connect with each other in a system that requires all steps of a supply chain and the end-user to be within walking distance of one of her "give-and-take" flea market labor booths. Just think of all the in-kind transactions that have to take place for someone who needs a washing machine to get one from the 1000-or-so people who make every part and labor of that supply chain, from miners, oil refiners, and engineers to farmers who produce the food required for all those people to work. Everyone would have to have some discrete item or service that another in the chain wanted for anything at all to be built/traded.

Stupid system, bad journalism for allowing people to believe this is lifestyle is achievable for any but a few folks in a society.

Relatively Obscure: WTF Indeed: Let's be franc, that's pretty awesome.

Mark my words, she'll come to regret this.

Like the day she she's diagnosed with cancer or some other horrible old person disease.