One more thing The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook turned me on to: Bartering.
The book doesn’t actually go into detail about a barter-based economy. Instead, it talks about alternative and local currencies — Read about Berkshares in Massachussets to see how such ideas are playing out today.
But if we’re talking about alternatives to money as we know it, bartering certainly enters the equation. I started wondering how I could get what I wanted without paying for it — via bartering.
Enter Ironweed Film Club, a DVD club that sends out a movie that deals with social, political, and environmental issues to subscribers each month. Initially, Ironweed wanted to see if I wanted to be part of a more traditional ad program. But having just read Post-Petroleum, I wrote back asking if they’d be willing to give me a membership in exchange for an ad.
Luckily, Ironweed, being the progressive film club it is, said yes! Thus the nice ad to the right — and I’mm looking forward to what’re bound to be fascinating DVDs I wouldn’t've gotten a chance to see otherwise. No money exchanged hands, but we both got what we wanted –
Which encourages me to seek out other bartering exchanges –
It’s good to read of your bartering success, which revolved around you taking the initiative to “ask” to work on a barter basis. For the last 27 years I’ve been following the commercial barter industry and publishing BarterNews. It’s a growing way of doing business that many people/small companies don’t take advantage of because no one has showed them the way. I encourage everyone to try it, take small baby steps until you feel comfortable. Regards, Bob Meyer
Comment by Bob Meyer — March 11, 2007 @ 1:35 pm