Today is 'Free Money Day', a day in which strangers give away two coins or notes with the understanding that the receiver pass on half of what they've been given, encouraging us to look at our relationship with money in a different way. As someone who works in a pub for minimum wage, I've found my finances are quickly becoming a regular headache of mine (particularly after a night out with tequila, wine and rum). This day has come at a good time for me.
So do we actually need money to be happy? On September 15th, the Lehman Brothers, one of the largest investment banks in the world, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which fuelled the fire for this idea. Of course, it goes without saying that a certain amount would make life easier - enough to cover bills, rent, food and the regular trips to the pub - but beyond a certain point, does excess money make our lives that much happier? Do we obsess over money when we don't have it, or does having a lot of it make us obsess over it even more?
I have always said that if I ever won the lottery I'd give away 90% of my winnings - not because I'm 'noble' or can 'live simply' or any other bullshit egotistical reason that comes to mind - but simply because I wouldn't know what to do with it all. How are you supposed to spend £92million in one lifetime without becoming weird and unrealistic? I'd probably want to make a good impact on things that are important to me (like sloths, I love sloths, and I'd like to buy a pub one day), pay off my friends and family's debt, buy a house, do all the sensible things one's supposed to do. Then I'd do the silly stuff, like throwing lavish parties on a big boat with Greg Wilson and Earth, Wind and Fire as the headline acts and have lashings of champagne and smoked salmon.
Anyway, Free Money Day is an opportunity for us to spread some joy and be positive in an environment where we are told 'life is tough, making money is hard, working for free is acceptable'. There is no amount too small or big - the gesture is supposed to act as a catalyst for conversation, rather than providing a life-changing sum of money.
So if you are approached by a stranger offering you money today, don't be a typical cynical Londoner (as seen during 'Wearelucky's attempt to spread some joy), accept the generous gesture, pass on the wealth yourself, and spread some financial joy.
Follow @freemoneyday on Twitter! Or check out their website for more information.
Hi Lucy! Thanks so much for posting about Free Money Day and helping get the word out, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThis event is about doing absolutely the most counter-intuitive thing we can do with money in our society. The very act of giving away one's own money serves as a 'signal interruption' to a culture where we've turned everything we value into commodities to be transacted, and have allowed money to define people's health, wellbeing and happiness (or lack of it).
Breaking the spell of money, even temporarily, invites us to think about how we define 'wealth' and 'value'. In no way should this mean dismissing money, because right now, most of us do need money to meet our needs.
But what if money worked differently? What if we had economies in which your status derived from how much you have to share, not how much you accumulate? Not only does the very act of physically handing money to another person create shifts in energy for both giver and recipient, it creates conversations - '...guess what happened today? Someone was giving out money...', 'Really? Who would do that?! And why..?'.
People from places as diverse as Ghana, India, Colombia, South Korea, Egypt, Russia and Thailand will be celebrating Free Money Day today.
Here are some of the creative ways people are coming up with to celebrate Free Money Day - and one fellow running for Mayor in Bristol, UK, is stashing five pound notes around the city and Tweeting the locations!
http://www.freemoneyday.org/when-sharing-becomes-unstoppable
Thanks again
Sharon
on behalf of the Post Growth team