[MD] Capitalism: my experience

[gav]

hiya,
just thought i'd share something i became aware of recently whilst working as a gardener. 

late last year i was travelling around the country and had stopped to see friends in a town called castlemaine north-west of melbourne, in country victoria. whilst there i picked up some gardening work through a friend and did some gardening at a couple of places, working with a very interesting bibliophile called john.

anyway to cut to the story - i didn't enjoy getting up and going to work - i didn't want to do it. it wasn't any problem with the work or with john, or the locations. i only figured out what it was sometime afterwards.

after working with john i spent the best part of a week doing a gardening job for my friends in castlemaine - to say thanks for letting me stay with them. i mowed, snipped and tidied their gardens; built two vegetable beds and a 3-bay composting system and eventually planted it all up (i got a text two days ago telling me my friends in castlemaine were eating lettuce, basil and tomatoes from out of their garden). this work was a joy to do - i enjoyed it immensely - it was creative and absorbing and stress free.

what i realised through all this is that working for money is an essentially alienating exercise. working for free, or as exchange is quite different - it is ...noble. it builds trust, friendships, community....

money is the root of all evil?