Working For Free - Working For Freedom

This is a post inspired by ideas and notions mentioned in two articles I recently read: the first one being this text & video by @kennyskitchen, the other one is this post by @nateonsteemit. Though the topics diverge a bit, both of them mention one thing I've been pondering about a lot lately: Working without monetary compensation.

The concept of volunteering is nothing new for me. I have wwoofed quite a bit in various places around the world, and in recent years I have helped with numerous eco-building projects, mostly Earthships. However, it wasn't until this year that my eyes are getting opened to the incredible freedom that comes with volunteering. Let me illustrate:

Comparing the Last Two Years

If you've been following my blog for the last year, you will be familiar with the projects I have undertaken in 2018, the year I consider by far the best in my whole life. Building the wall in Oaxaca, Earthshipping on Vancouver Island, and even working at the bike shop in Victoria were examples where I dedicated my time, strength, mind, and skills to help with a project that is ultimately not mine, and all without asking for any money in return.

The actual compensation occurred in a different form:

I had the opportunity to stay in some of the most wonderfully pristine natural locations.
I had the pleasure to do something I knew deep and well that it was good.
I was daily confronted with challenges that turned into learning experiences.
I was fed copious amounts of the most delicious and healthy food.
Doing physical work in a natural setting soon gave me a body to be proud of, including a nice compact, muscular shape, and a healthy suntan that made sunscreen obsolete.
I maintained perfect health for a good 16 months, without even a slight 3-day cold or an upset stomach.
I got to share all of the benefits listed above with good friends, and amazing people that would become friends.
I would depart with lots of cherished memories, while looking forward to future encounters.

The list could go on, but you get the gist: by volunteering you get back so much more than what was originally "bargained for" without actually taking away anything from the host, or anyone. Also, from the host's perspective it's an incredible win, since it would be otherwise impossible to build an Earthship in Canada, for example. After all, who could afford a crew of tire-pounders if they were to be paid legally in the national currency? An arm and a leg is still an understatement.

Legally Paid Work

Now to contrast all that, let's take a look at how our modern system of employment works. After all, this is what I've been experiencing first hand ever since I got back into the system in January.

Congratulations, you are hired! Now, before you can get paid, you need to work for a whole month. Scratch that! Since payday is usually after the 10th of a month (at least where I work), I'd have to work a good six weeks before you get anything in return. On the other hand, should you have rented a place to live at the same time as when you started your job, you'd have to pay the whole month's rent before the first day of moving in. Security deposit, last months rent, and other surcharges are still on top of that.

By now, anyone who's not completely institutionalized by our system should feel outraged. But this is only the start. To be paid you need a bank account (which in turn requires another whole rigmarole of documents I don't want to get into). The bank takes its fees from your pay, but that is still nothing compared to the cut the government snatches in form of taxes. But so far we've only been pushing paper around. You still haven't been compensated for your work. You'd actually have to go out and spend that money (including more taxes!) for things that are notoriously bad, in one way or another. If you look at most goods and services available today, the majority of them are bad for us, toxic, unhealthy, unethical, and/or feeding an exploitative system. As an ethical consumer you can choose not to participate in them, but in the end you're left with few options. Finally you find yourself having to work to support the exploitation of all of us, including yourself.

Serving Others

The one sentence from @kennyskitchen's post that popped right out and stuck with me is this:

Things were so easy when I started traveling; I had no money, no plans, no electronics, and just the focus on being of service to others.

Traveling like that reminds me a bit of my bike journey I took after working on the Earthship, from Vancouver Island down to the US-Mexican border. The difference was that I did have some money (spent around $10 a day), I had my relatively good phone with me for electronic needs, and my potential service to others was overshadowed by my plan of arriving at a certain place at a certain time.

Still, while I was traveling, I was constantly thinking of how nice it would be to just stay in a place, especially where cool projects were going on or where I could be of help, and all without having to catch a flight in the end.

Full-Time Volunteering. Is It Possible?

So if you are wondering why I came back to work in the system yet again, even after seeing all the freedom and possibilities outside, I can tell you the reason: ... Okay, there are various reasons of course, but one major one is fear. Fear that in spite of all the wonderful experiences I had, that lifestyle cannot be maintained for an extended time, and that ultimately I would run myself into ruin.

I know, this is an old fear, held up by my parents and my German upbringing, shared by my wife, as well as as most people I know, and there may be some truth to it. After all, my expenses last year were around $5000 more than my income. That may not sound like a lot, and actually, spending five thousand bucks a year may seem quite prudent to some. Still, I could not keep up that lifestyle for many years... unless, I get some other kind of compensation.

Cryptos and Crowdfunding

This is where @nteonsteemit comes in. In his post Sustainable Volunteering in the Age of Digital Currency he mentions several exciting ideas on supporting people who share their work on sustainability without asking for monetary compensation. Crowdfunding for materials, seeking donations in cryptos, organizing a type of non-profit to make this kinda work possible...

At the moment, these ideas may seem completely nuts - utopian to most of us. But I'm sure there are those who have made sufficient experiences around barter, work-trade, and other examples of true free trade, to get excited by it. (I know I am!)

For right now I'm open and eager to exchange some thoughts on this subject, and hopefully come up with a clearer idea of how something like this may work. Then (God, I hope soon!) I'll get up on my bike again, and start riding through this great land, with clear destinations of places that need my hands and brains, hopefully with other like-minded superheroes, to make some amazing changes to a place, then ride on to do something similar, in another place that needs us. It'll be so wonderful!