So what is The Freeconomy Community about?

It's about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society.
It's about helping others and providing an opportunity for others to help you.
It's about sharing the skills you have learnt through your life and learning those you haven't.
It's about sharing your tools so you all can have access to all the tools under the sun without it costing the earth.
It's about using any free space you have to either benefit positive, ethical and local projects, or to enable volunteers to keep doing their amazing work for free.
It's about sharing the land you don't need in order to facilitate a local food community.
It's about freeconnecting neighbours.
It's about learning to help each other again.
It's about getting ready for a post peak oil world.
It's about making dinner for a friend who was yesterday a stranger.
It's about keeping money out of the equation.
It's about communicating face-to-face and phasing out technological communication.
It's about putting the soul back into society.
It's about helping each other not for profit, but just for the love-ofit.

What is a Freeconomy?

A Freeconomy is a moneyless society in which no money changes and there is no duality between giving and receiving; here they are seen as the two sides of the same non-monetary coin.

Freeconomy is a manifestation of trust, kindness, community and love. Money and credit are a manifestation of fear, insecurity and greed. Freeconomy is the common denominator to all of its solutions; Money and credit are the common denominators of all the world's ills.

Right now freeconomies are the minority. This is unimportant. Soon they will be the overwhelming majority. Each one of us is a seed. The regenerative power of one seed cannot be underestimated. A forest can grow from the germination of a single seed, and similarly one simple act of generosity can give life to an infinite number of others.

So what was the motivation behind it? (by Saoirse)

Over the last number of years I have been looking around at the major issues of the world, and thinking 'How can I possibly help solve them all?' Environmental destruction on a criminal scale, factory farms, sweatshops, the war on peace, multinational corporations, billboards - by no means a small job.

But one lazy Sunday afternoon I jumped up out of the bath of inaction and shouted 'Eureka'! I had a sudden realisation - there was a common denominator within them all - money. Without money and its alter-ego's credit and profit, a lot of the above issues would start to look after themselves.

So I decided to get rid of money. I should make it clear that I don't blame the innocent notes and coins that are labelled as such. For me, I label the fear, insecurity and lack of faith in humanity and the universe to look after us as money. How I was going to do this though was another matter.

But now I truly believe I have found the answer. This web-site is not it; a web-site couldn't possibly be. But this site and its underlying concept is a long stretch of the road that will take us there.

I hope you guys believe in it as much as I do. This is an opportunity for us to make the transition to a society without money, and how much more enriched would life and our interactions be if we succeed?

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No Rules!

In Freeconomy, there are no rules, only virtues. And they are the following:

• Photos of members are not allowed. We currently live in a society where people are judged by their appearances. This will not be one of those societies. The only exceptions of photographs on the web-site are those of Saoirse on his pilgrimage.
• You will only get three chances to email a community member per month. This site isn't about making virtual contacts. This site is about making real contacts, and the more local the better. So we advise you to swap phone numbers or addresses at a point when you feel comfortable, but before 3 mails.
• There are no chat rooms. If you want to chat, go and do some gardening together.
• This web-site is not the end in itself, merely the means. We believe that now is the time to make the transition away from electronic technology and get back to building real, local communities. We hope that at some point in the future this site will become obsolete because we will all know our neighbours again. Until that day, help us build Freeconomy through this site.

Everything else is up to you

Is the need for money an illusion?

You better believe it. Birds don't have money, trees don't use money and as far as I know earthworms have never heard of such a ridiculous concept. Money, in any human language today, gets translated to mean security. It's insurance against the universe, nature and the rest of humanity letting us down and not providing for us. No money = No security.

So I posed the following question; what would happen if a post peak oil capitalist economy, quite literally, toppled from its speculative foundations in the next ten to twenty years, and money lost all value beyond kindling? What would be defined as true security in such a circumstance - lots of pieces of paper and metal in abandoned banks, or skills, and a very tightly knit community built on the foundations of mutual service?

If money evaporated today, would we all die? Of course not, but some would, simply because we have lost the art of helping each other just for the love of community.