Profitability, Gift Giving, and Alternative Economies

It’s no secret that I love a good barter. I mean, really anything that exists outside capitalism makes me smile, but there’s something special about the exchange of goods between two people that feels extra special.

While I’m aware that we live in a culture that depends on money, there are lots of ways that we can have some of our needs met outside that economic system. The problem with capitalism as an economic system is multifaceted and the subject of many full books, but one of the problems that I feel in my bones most deeply is that it prioritizes profit above all else. You’ll see this phrase often but maybe it’s worth taking a moment to dig into what that actually means.

When people choose a career, often that choice is made with a few things in mind: what am I good at? what am I passionate about? what will earn enough income to live comfortably? I mean, I hope that these are the questions that most young people ask when heading out on the career path. I suspect that some folks are more driven by questions around how much money they can make, but I’m not really a fan of those people so don’t give them much room in my brain.

Let’s suppose for a moment that most of us are driven to a career by passion: we take something we love doing and do that thing to earn money. In a perfect world, that passion earns us enough money to have a roof over our heads and food on our plates. I know that far too often, we are called to put our passions on the back burner because they don’t earn us enough money, and instead get a job working for someone else doing something we are less passionate about, but are willing to do all the same. In an ideal world, we don’t hate that work or the people we work for.

The problem with capitalism and it’s profit above all mentality is that there is no room for passions. There is no room for pleasure. There is no room for friendships or improved working conditions or nurturing excitement or fostering joy. All of those other qualities take a back seat to profitability. This is one of the reasons why oppression is baked right into the system itself.

Enter alternative economic systems like barter, trade, and complimentary currencies. Where does profitability fit into these models? It’s still in there, to be sure. But there’s the laser focus on profit at all costs no longer fits. Barter and trade are an exchange of goods, ideally both parties have things that the other needs but the hoarding of goods doesn’t really make sense. The best kind of trade is when neither person will miss the things that they’ve traded away because they are in abundance or no longer being used. Herbs from your garden, kids’ clothes that still have life left, gift cards that won’t get used, even labour or skills that can be given freely.

Complimentary currencies take this a step further to extend the trade and barter relationship to multiple people in a community. The currency is used to record the exchange, but that currency doesn’t have a value to be sold in federal currency. Timebanks, local currencies, trade groups. All of these help facilitate trades between people to get things that want or need.

Will barter pay your rent? Probably not, although there are some cool programs like WWOOF for folks that want to trade labour for a roof. Will trade clothe you and your family? I’ve probably gotten 80% of our clothes in the last few years from running clothing swaps, so yes - I can confirm that it works well. Can you feed your family through exchange alone? It might be hard but organizations like the Saugeen Trading Community will get you part of the way there.

Beyond formal trade though, there is something so beautiful that happens from exchange in what I love to call the gift economy.

We’re all familiar with giving gifts. It’s part of our cultural system that has existed long before capitalism showed up. We give gifts to people that we care about and the very best gifts are given out of love, sharing skills, and imparting to others what we are most passionate about. Giving gifts builds relationships. It fosters a sense of community.

You can give ANYTHING as a gift. Food, clothes, goods - yes, these are what we all think about as gifts: presents wrapped up in boxes with shiny bows. But you can always give your time as a gift. You can give your knowledge as a gift. You can share your home as a gift. You can share your love as a gift.

And there is no way to profit off gifts.

Gift giving is a positive, life giving way to rebel against the status quo that no only feels good, but builds out new systems of reciprocity in the face of the soul crushing devastation of late stage capitalism. It is grounded in sharing what we have to give, caring about others in our communities, and there is literally no way to center profit as a motive.

Story time: a few weeks ago, I was supposed to go to a super sweet zine event that I sadly missed because my vehicle broke down while I was on my way there. I was so bummed but tried to turn around the loss and had a free-shipping sale on Instagram instead. It was really lovely and I was happy to mail out zines and prints all across Turtle Island. I was also happy to sell some items locally to friends, and dropped off some prints with my son’s forest school mentor, Kim.

Kim has been a stalworth supporter and cheerleader, exceptional forest school mentor and community champion. She offered to etransfer me the funds for the prints and I casually waved my hand; we would figure something out. Later on, she reminded me that she still owed me for the prints and I suggested something in exchange if she had anything else to share.

Lo and behold, when I dropped my son off this morning for school, she handed me a box filled with eggs from her hens, garlic from their garden, honey from their hives, a beeswax candle, and homemade soap. Unpacking them when I got back home, I was brought to tears with her generosity. Her gift was worth so much more than the dollar amount of the prints.

Will honey and eggs pay my bills? No, I know they won’t. But gift giving isn’t in opposition to earning money. It lives gently alongside, nudging at my heart when the weight of capitalism has me low. It reminds me that there is more to life than profit and that there are alternatives out there; easy alternatives that exist right now, here in the present, that we can tap into anytime we want to.

And what might happen if we grounded more and more of our exchange in this gift economy? What if more people started giving what they have, accepting what is offered and shared, instead of demanded a higher profit margin? What if these exchange networks grew to hundreds or thousands of people offering their goods and services in direct exchange for other goods and services? I know it might not be a perfect solution to other throw the system, but any step in the right direction feels like a damn good step to take for me.