Anyone in a Buy Nothing group?

https://buynothingproject.org/find-a...comment-page-1

Is anyone in a group derived from this? There is one (actually two now, story to follow) for my neighborhood on Facebook. It's basically a gift economy type thing. I was surprised - a lot of time things like this will flair up and then fade after, but the one for my neighborhood has been active and sustaining well.

The story is we now have two groups (kind of) for my neighborhood. One philosophy behind this particular gift economy is "sprouting" - basically when the group (and you can only be in one group) reaches a certain size it should split so the groups remain a manageable size, people can actually know people in their group, etc. So after we hit a size, that's what the admins did. Splitting it right on a street that pretty much demarks an economic boundary in my neighborhood. It was just kind of announced it would happen and in a very small window - and then there was a huge pushback on it. It got a bit ugly. The end result is the split happened, but the boundary was changed to include a wider economic range in both groups - and another group outside of Buy Nothing was started by those who thought the neighborhood should remain intact. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I hope it all continues to thrive.

Creaker: I tried for months to join the buy nothing group for my town and never got anywhere. I can only assume the group is not active. I finally connected with a former admin who said she could add me to her current group, a local "Shop Till You Drop" group. Um, not quite the same thing!

Oh contraire mon ami....... aren’t they both exactly the same thing!

I guess if you drop dead from the shopping you will be buying nothing.

I belong to one, but it's on Facebook. I don't like Facebook and don't visit it on a regular basis - usually only when I have things to give away.

There are a couple of people who I think are pickers/ resellers - they seem to be constantly on there saying how grateful they'd be to get the item.

I've seen things that I could really use - a 5 pound bag of hazelnuts, daffodil bulbs, LED bulbs - but I'm always late to the game. It's not worth the irritation of FB to me.

If I were just setting up house, or had little kids, it would be priceless! (pun unintended)

What is the purpose of this group? I could get it encourages people to make things at home, grow own food, sew and knit, everything manually and no need to buy stuff. But it's harmful to the economy...

Summer, interesting point. What makes “the economy” so important? I would propose that our assessment of “the economy” is an easy substitute for assessing quality of life.

A popular local restaurant burned down here last year. It has been very good for “the economy” - other restaurants have an uptick in business, as do grocery stores, because people still have to eat. The construction job is employing more people than the restaurant did, and several of the restaurant employees have been able to stay on doing catering in rented space. The owners of that space are profiting... Was the fire a good thing?

disposable anything is good for the economy, but bad for the environment. Environmental clean ups are good for the economy, but wouldn’t it have been better to avoid them in the first place? Even though that would be “harmful to the economy”?

when my children were small I took care of them myself. So I did not “participate in the economy” (I also worked hard to decrease spending, so even more harm) but I fail to see what real benefit would have accrued from my working and paying someone else to care for them. My quality of life would have decreased, and I believe theirs would have as well. (Am I obligated to support others financially by hiring them? Isn’t that just a warped form of taxation and welfare?) I think providing quality child care for moms who want to work is great, but I am concerned about the drive to “pull” everyone into the work force.

I think reducing every interaction to an economic balance sheets weakens communities and decreases overall quality of life.

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Originally Posted by Chicken lady

I think reducing every interaction to an economic balance sheets weakens communities and decreases overall quality of life.

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I agree. It is impossible to not consider economic aspects of our communities. But I think our communities have long suffered for the perceived need to monetize the $#!+ out of anything and everything -- especially when some of the assets and liabilities which ought to be considered in a full accounting are unquantified and often considered "off the table" by those doing the counting. :(

Very interesting concept. I checked and my small town doesn't have a one.