Daniel Suelo is 51 years old and
broke. Happily broke. Consciously,
deliberately, blessedly broke. Not only does he not have debt, a
mortgage or rent, he does not earn a
salary. Nor does he buy food or
clothes, or own any product with a
lower case "i" before it. Home is a
cave on public land outside Moab, Utah. He scavenges for food from the
garbage or off the land (fried
grasshoppers, anyone?). He has been
known to carve up and boil fresh
road kill. He bathes, without soap, in
the creek. In the fall of 2000, Suelo (who
changed his name from Shellabarger),
decided to stop using money
altogether. That meant no "conscious
barter," food stamps or other
government handouts. His mission was to "use only what is freely given
or discarded and what is already
present and already running," he
wrote on his web site, Zero Currency. The question many people wonder: Is
he insane, or a mooch, or simply
dedicated to leading a simple, honest,
dare we say, Christ-like existence? They're good questions. And
depending whom you ask, the
answers vary. Suelo wasn't always a modern-day
caveman. He went to the University of
Colorado and studied anthropology,
at one point considering medical
school. He lived in a real house, with
four walls, a window and a door, and shopped in stores, not their
dumpsters. But over time he says he grew
depressed, clinically depressed,
mainly with the focus on acquisition.
"Every time I made a resume for a job,
signed my name to a document,
opened a bank account, or even bought a banana at the supermarket,
I felt a tinge of dishonesty," he said. He was born into an Evangelical
Christian home in Grand Junction,
Colo., and took his religion seriously.
Eventually, he started wondering why
"professed Christians rarely followed
the teachings of Jesus--namely the Sermon on the Mount, namely giving
up possessions, living beyond credit
and debt--freely giving and freely
taking--giving, expecting nothing in
return, forgiving all debts, owing
nobody a thing, living beyond payback of either evil-for-evil or
good-for-good, living and walking
without guilt (debt), without grudge
(debt), without judgment (credit &
debt), living by Grace, by Gratis, not
by our own works but by the works of the true Nature flowing through,"
he said. Although he considered himself a
Christian, he discovered that the same
principles applied to Taoism, Judaism,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism,
Islam, Mormonism, Shamanism, and
Paganism. One year he went to Alaska and
worked on the docks. But that, too,
he says, felt dishonest. Instead, he
and a buddy decided to live off the
land—spearing fish, foraging for
mushrooms and berries. (Think Castaway, but with snow). Suelo
(which means soil in Spanish)
eventually hitch-hiked back to Moab
with USD 50 in his pocket. By the time
he arrived, his stash had dwindled to
USD 25. He realized that he only needed money for things he really
didn't need, like snacks and booze. He began toying with the idea of
living full-time without money. He
traveled to India, and became
fascinated by Hindu Sadhus, who
wandered without lucre and
possessions. He considered joining them, but then he realized that "A true
test of faith would be to return to one
of the most materialistic, money-
worshipping nations on earth, to
return to the authenticity profound
principles of spirituality hidden beneath our own religion of
hypocrisy, and be a Sadhu there," he
said. "To be a vagabond, a bum, and
make an art of it - this idea enchanted
me." And soon, that's exactly what he did.
He says he left his life savings—a
whopping USD 30—in a phone
booth, and walked away. But he didn't do it in a vacuum; he
maintained his blog for free from the
Moab public library. Rather than just
sitting on a mountain and gazing at
his navel, he wanted to have an
impact on others, to spread his gospel. In 2009, Mark Sundeen, an old
acquaintance he'd worked with at a
Moab restaurant, heard about Suelo
through mutual friends. At first, "I
thought he must have lost his mind,"
Sundeen, 42, said in a telephone conversation. But then he began
reading his blog, and grew intrigued.
Sundeen divides his time between
Missoula, Mont., and Moab, where he
was once a river guide, and he paid a
visit to Suelo's cave. Gradually, he said he realized that
much of what Suelo was saying made
a whole lot of sense. This was right
around the time the economic
crashed, and "It felt like a lot of what
he was saying was prophetic," said Sundeen. "That money is an illusion,
an addiction. That resonated with me
after the collapse for the economy." Sundeen was so intrigued that he
decided to write a book about Suelo, The Man Who Quit Money, which was published in March. While the book reviews have been
generally positive, Suelo has come
under fire by some who say he's a
mooch, or a derelict, sponging off
society without contributing. They are
valid criticisms: This is a guy, after all, who's gotten arrested for train
hopping, (what would Jesus say
about that?). And he's not opposed to
house sitting in winter--not exactly
living off the land. And besides: How is he actually
helping others by going without? It's
not like he's solving world hunger, or
curing cancer. Sundeen disputes these arguments.
"He doesn't accept any government
programs—welfare, food stamps,
Medicare," he said. "The only ways in
which he actually uses taxpayer
funded derivatives is walking on roads and using the public library. So
in that regard he's a mooch--he's
using the roads and not paying taxes.
But if you try to quantify the amount
of money he's taking from the system
—it's a couple of dollars a year, less than anyone's ever used." Instead, he is actively promoting "his
idea that money is an illusion,"
Sundeen said. "The Fed just prints it
up, it doesn't mean anything and it's
going to lead us down the road to
serfdom." Suelo simply doesn't want to contribute to that, and so he lives
life on his own terms. That said, Sundeen wouldn't live the
way Suelo does. "The appeal to me is
the living outdoors part, but I feel like
I got my feel of that working as an
Outward Bound guide," he said. "At
this point I have other priorities." Suelo, for his part, has no plans to
bring money back into his life. "I
know it's possible to live without
money," he said. "Abundantly."