08 May Give Yourself a Raise and Stop Paying for Food
Today will be talking about food. You need money to buy food, right?
But what happens when there’s not enough food?
Prices go up.
Now you need more money to buy the same food that you could buy yesterday for less.
People with limited money generally consider this to be a bad thing. And they might be right.
But what if you didn’t need money to get food?
Aha!
Obvious solutions aren’t as easy as simply paying money. You could steal the food, for example. There is danger there in the form of risk of physical harm, incarceration, and forfeiture of what little money you have left. So for the purpose of this argument, we are going to rule out theft as being impractical.
People are used to working for money. Slaves are used to working for food and shelter. If you worked part time in exchange for room and board, finding the money to pay for the food becomes your employer’s problem instead of yours. If you’re only working for food, you might be able to get away with working even less then a slave historically would.
But how might I do that? This is the time to get creative. Many organizations will provide free meals for employees, including unpaid volunteer employees. Helping at a homeless shelter or a food bank might get you access to their food in exchange for your labor. Not only are you helping the in the community, but you get free stuff! Sounds like a good deal to me.
A host or hostess at a restaurant might only be necessary for two or three hours in the evening. Ten hours a week is not much of a job, but someone on a pension might be able to take advantage of that: they might even trade their hours for food credit in the restaurant. If it’s a nice restaurant, one might theoretically be able to save up enough to take a few friends out for a fancy dinner once per month. Not bad for an evening hobby.
Hunting and gathering, while theoretically possible in an urban environment, are difficult outside of the most world areas bordering wilderness. Agriculture, on the other hand, is not so difficult. There have been a number of projects proving that small-space intensive agriculture as possible in spare bedrooms and on balconies and apartment buildings. Some projects have gone so far as to utilize rooftops on high-rise buildings. While these areas are generally closed off to the general public, it doesn’t hurt to ask for special permission. If you have permission, you’re not the general public anymore.
Wait! If I have permission, I’m suddenly somebody else? Sorcery!
Gardening is an age-old tradition. While you might not be able to raise all of the corn that you might need to keep you in breakfast flakes cereal year-round, you can certainly grow sprouts, root vegetables and vine-type plants in flowerpots and window boxes. Hydroponic, aquaponic agriculture or other alternative methods which you could experiment with since you have more time than money.
Every fresh vegetable you produce is one that does not need to be bought. Is it free? No, but your labor may produce agricultural products which are of higher quality than you could have afforded through simply trading your time and effort for money.
In summary, the price of food goes up and down; your time and effort are constants. By producing something of higher value than you could purchase with money at a store, you’re giving yourself a raise.
So there you go. Give yourself a raise and stop paying for food.