How would you survive if you could not make money?

I’m, more or less, in this exact situation and can’t decide if it somehow can be construed as an opportunity or if it only suck. If anyone has a good answer I would LOVE to hear it as well.

Firstly, I would make sure myself and my family were going to have their basic needs met. I would start here. They have links to homeless shelters, free stuff, food banks, rent assistance programs etc.

I believe it could be an opportunity. Some people have jobs and houses and they hate their lives. They feel trapped. When all of our insulators collapse, we are left with no excuses. No reasons that tomorrow has to be just like today. Feel free to explore that idea further in this book

I don’t know. If I were in that situation, it would probably be because I no longer wanted to survive.

Public assistance first, combined with foraging. It is not necessary to have money to live. Many people do without. You simply have to get over the idea of having “things”, and just concentrate on where and how to get food, and where you will sleep. Food grows along streams and in the woods, and garbage cans are a great source of good, safe foods, as well as items to wear and to sell. You will most likely have the most trouble finding safe water to drink, and can use the money to buy water.

My brother lived as a scavanger for many years in between part-time jobs.

Now this is an interesting question. Well done, and welcome to fluther.

I think I would first try and see if there were a local commune that would take me in. I’d of course trade my labor for their kindness.

No, first I would live off public assistance for as long as possible. I see no shame in that at all.

As things stand – You can’t.
Money is oxygen. Without it , you don’t breathe.

But it won’t always be.

I would depend on the kindness of strangers, as I always have.

@lloydbird elaborate

Hm.
I would do any and all public assistance, but the catch with public assistance that most people who have never used it seem to forget…you need to have a job to receive it.
I would sell belongings, probably move to an area where I could live more cheaply..probably a more country or mountainous setting. I would do all I could to survive.

If I could not earn money in any way at all, I would grow food, of course.

Pillage.

Apply for a training course at the indigenous training center for big city bargain hunters. Central Amazon area would be nice. I’ve always wanted to learn how to handle a spear.

If you had no prospects of reasonable employment in the near future, one would assume you were disabled. Each state provides food stamps and assistance for that.

Our local supermarket chain has predominantly mildly mentally retarded young people working the cash registers, loading shelves, replacing carts, cleaning, sweeping. They are all pleasant, accurate and high-functioning salary earners. There are several group homes for the more severely impared. They sell home-made choc. chip cookies at the local eatiers, I have noticed.

And in this rural, old-fashioned community with a high percentage of the full-time population going to church, there are many support systems for those in trouble who have no families. We have food drives, deliver meals-on-wheels to people who can’t get out during the winter, drive folks to doctor’s appointments, and pay attention. The local paper always writes articles about these issues.

You do write an elegant sentence; I hope that you will not be spending this winter in sleeping bag in the NY sewer system. Move to a small town instead and learn how to paint, pet-watch or mow fields.

See this question: http://www.fluther.com/disc/57412/where-can-i-sleep-safely-outdoors-at-night-in-nyc-this/#quip827316

Are you a homeless person at a public library?

Is your novel progressing? Why so coy?

@gailcalled he asked both questions

@patg7590: That is the point.

@gailcalled psst, im stupid

@patg7590: Not at all, just too hasty. We’ve all done it.