不花钱更开心

Reporter： Believing that money distorts our relationships with the natural world and with one another， Mark Boyle set out to live for a full year without making any use of money at all. A year later， to his surprise， he found that he was happier， healthier and more content than he had ever been. He wrote a book called The Moneyless Man and used the royalties to start a movement called“Freeconomy，” which utilizes an online site to present the philosophy of moneyless living and to provide a clearing-house where members can connect with other members to share skills， possessions or accommodation. Its now used by people in 162 countries.

Mark Boyle： Just happened to move over to the UK， and then got a job in an organic food store， and that put me into contact with lots of green-thinking people， people who are questioning things. You know， Id heard of earthworms and bees and stuff for the first time. After having studied economics for six years， Id never actually once come across kind of real-life economics. And so it made me question everything about the way we were living and the monetary system. And I got to the point in 2006 where I was trying to think “What am I going to dedicate my life to？ Theres so many big issues in the world， from sweat shops to factory farms and ecological destruction， like， which is going to be my passion？”And I realized that these were all just symptoms of a deeper recourse， and for me that recourse was our separation from the things we can see and our separation from nature， and until we reconnect with what we can see and with the natural world， then very littles gonna change. And I had like another kind of momentary realization of one of the biggest disconnecting tools that we have is…is money. It gives us the illusion of independence. Its a good thing to be independent， but what were actually really doing is just becoming dependent on people far away from us. Its not like any of us could survive by ourselves today. We speak always about the benefits of money—its every day in the papers—but what we dont talk about is the consequences. And I realized that actually theres no point me talking about these consequences if I dont actually start to live it myself， first to see how it feels as a human being， to live without money in a world thats pretty much driven by it. So I made a commitment to， for one year， to live without money. By the end of it， my biggest…my biggest problem was can I go back into the monetary world. It was a real struggle for a few months， and I just realized Ive never been happier. Thats why I continued doing it after the first year， but it has been the best experience of my life on so many different levels.

記者：马克·博伊尔认为金钱会扭曲我们与自然的关系，扭曲人与人之间的关系。于是，他开始了一整年完全不花钱的生活。出乎他意料的是，一年后，他觉得自己比任何时候都开心、健康和满足。他写了一本名叫《一年不花钱：我的无货币主义生活》的书，并用稿费成立了一个叫“免费经济”的组织，该组织利用网站向世人介绍无钱生活的理念，并为组织成员相互分享技能、个人物品和住处提供一个平台。如今，已经有162个国家的人在尝试他的这种做法。

马克·博伊尔：当时我碰巧搬到了英国，然后在一家有机食品店找到了一份工作。这让我有机会与许多主张保护环境的人接触，这些人常常会对事情提出质疑。你知道吗，那是我第一次听说蚯蚓、蜜蜂这一类东西。我学了六年的经济学，却从来没有真正接触过真实生活中的经济学。这一切让我审视我们生活方式的点点滴滴，还有金融体系的各个方面。到了2006年，我在想，“我要献身于什么事业呢？世界上有许多重大问题有待解决，从血汗工厂到工厂化农场，还有生态失衡，我将为哪一样倾注我的激情？”我后来意识到这些只不过是一些表面现象，它们源自更深层次的一种依赖，而那种依赖让我们与自己的所见所闻、与自然界之间处于分割状态，在我们得以与我们所见以及自然界重新建立起联系之前，情况不会发生什么变化。我有过瞬间的恍然大悟，意识到让我们处于这种分割状态的最大因素就是……是金钱。金钱给了我们一种独立的错觉。独立本是一件好事，但实际情况是我们必须依赖在远方的人们，今天，我们所有人都不可能靠自己生存。我们总是谈论金钱的好处——报纸每天都在说——但我们却不讨论它带来的后果。我意识到如果我不首先亲身在一个被金钱驱使的世界里过不花钱的日子，看看它到底是个什么样子，那空谈金钱带来的后果是没有意义的。因此，我下定决心过上一年不花钱的生活。这一年结束后，我最大的问题是自己还能不能回到这个货币世界中。有几个月真的很难，后来我发现自己从来没有这么开心过。这也是我在第一年结束后仍继续那种不花钱生活的原因。从许多层面上说，那是我生命中最好的经历。