Before currency, people used barter to exchange services or goods in the marketplace. Within the last decade, there has been a renewed interest in bartering, especially online. Below is a free online bartering site that allows you to swap, sell, buy or giveaway services and items.

Via ~Swapace

3 Easy Steps To Using SwapAce

SwapAce allows you to SWAP, SELL, BUY & MEET.

You can exchange items and/or money. The diagram below shows how SwapAce can be very powerful for swapping items and/or money.

For more information, you can view our help article for Getting Started

Our Vision

SwapAce is an organisation with the vision to be “the fun, unique, trusted marketplace, where millions worldwide interact”.

Buy, Sell, Swap, Meet

• Want to barter and swap?
• Want to buy and sell?
• Want to meet people?
• Want to recycle and save money?

If you’re here, it means you are looking for an online marketplace with a difference. Frustrated with traditional forms of buying and selling online (which has mostly been limited to auction sites and classifieds), SwapAcewas born from the desire to trade with versatility.

If you wanted to simply buy something online for the best price, then some of these existing systems would be adequate for the task. But what if you wanted to choose who you bought from? What if you wanted to make a choice based on factors like distance, feedback, or simply how much you like the person selling what you want? Existing systems would not allow this sort of versatility, and so SwapAce was created to bring you a greater range of choice.

We wanted to give sellers a bit more of this choice as well. Normally, you would simply advertise your item and at the end of the advertisement period you would be pretty much stuck with having to sell your item to a particular person. We make it possible to negotiate the terms of an agreement with other parties. You can make offers and counter-offers until both of you are happy.

The vision of SwapAce is also to extend the online marketplace to people who might want to swap or barter goods and services. If you don’t use something anymore, you could certainly give it away and recycle. But you don’t have to; you can also swap it for something you might want to use. Bartering worked long before the introduction of currency, and it works today. Swapping or trading stuff is a great way to recycle.

You can also meet people at SwapAce. We think this is a simple extension of a marketplace; meeting people with similar interests and forming online communities. To this end we’ve created forums for people to discuss well, anything, and we encourage people to trade within their communities (either interest based or location based).

Okay, if you’ve read enough about how SwapAce rules and other sites drool (no more bad jokes, we promise), then why don’t you give it a try? Register an accountand see for yourself.

Hat Tip PuppetGov

An article from the Vancouver Sun, is a great illustration of how black markets rise in response from increased theft from the State. The article highlights the rise of Canada’s black market trade of cigarettes, due to increased taxation from the state.

The State seeks to invade every facet of our human experience, in this instance, gaining revenue from the invasive taxation of behavior. The social controllers believe a tax increase targeted on behavior, will be easier to implement on the public. Although they say it’s for behavior modification, they simply want your money, the trick is how to get you to go along with it. As the State seeks to increase their theft, people inherently turn to the Agora for solutions.

Via Vancouver Sun

High tobacco taxes intended to cut the smoking rate in Canada help create a black market where organized crime profits from the increased demand for contraband cigarettes, according to a new report from a Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Smuggling and trafficking of contraband cigarettes is an unintended consequence of federal and provincial tobacco tax policies,” said Diane Katz of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute in a statement.

The study, Contraband Tobacco in Canada, documents various federal and provincial tobacco tax policies and anti-smoking initiatives that have been implemented in Canada since the 1980s, and describes how governments have attempted to counteract the black market.

The research showed that the illicit trade of cigarettes increased whenever tobacco taxes were raised, and that anti-smoking campaigns are just as effective at cutting smoking rates.

“If smokers are evading taxes by purchasing black market cigarettes, increasing taxes to discourage smoking is essentially ineffective,” said Katz.

This is the inherent flaw of the statist, they believe that they are justified stealing money from you in order to keep you safe. If someone wants to ingest something, it’s their right to do so. In addition, the State always seeks new ways to extract wealth from the public, transferring it into their corrupt system, with little to no benefit for the citizens.

Through propaganda public relation campaigns, they target demographics, then categorize it as negative social behavior. Citizens who live in fear of true liberty, applaud these efforts, even though it’s highly likely that a demographic that they fit in will be targeted next. This is how government works; they tax the public dry, say it’s not enough, increase taxes more, complain that people are cheating the system, then claim the need to increase taxes even more. Complete insanity.

No matter how regulated and oppressed society might become due to statist policies, the Agora is always present. The organic market will always be ready to provide a beneficial solution for the public, whenever the State interferes with liberty.

Agora! Anarchy! Action!

The article highlights a significant rise of “unbanked” households, seeking financial privacy from unwarranted actions by the state. Federal, state and local tax revenues are decreasing, due to the increase of personal transactions “off the books.”

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released a report last week concluding that 7.7 percent of U.S. households, containing at least 17 million adults, are unbanked (i.e. those who do not have bank accounts), and an “estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked” (i.e., those who rely heavily on nonbank institutions, such as check cashing and money transmitting services). As an economy becomes richer and incomes rise, the normal expectation is that the proportion of the unbanked population falls and does not rise as is now happening in the United States.

People also avoid having bank accounts because they are vulnerable to asset seizure, judgments, levies, etc. Increasingly, bankers and others who provide financial services are forced by governments to spy and snitch on their own customers, and this is a real turnoff for many people, which causes them to find other ways of maintaining financial privacy.

I think this is a good indication of the spread of agorism and the inverse relationship it has with the state. The beauty of this is the fact it’s not a movement, this is occurring as a natural reaction against the states growing oppression. I would say an overwhelming majority of the people involved have never heard of agorism, but we all share a common enemy, the state. This organic rise of agorism, also coincides with the growth of activists subscribing to the philosophy in the present liberty movement.

Many studies have shown that when people believe the taxes they are required to pay are reasonable and the political leaders tend to spend their tax dollars wisely, tax compliance rises, and vice-versa. In the United States, there is increased evidence that many tax dollars are not being spent wisely and are often used to pay off political cronies.

Over the past year in particular, the public has become aware that many in Washington who advocate higher taxes and argue that everyone has a responsibility to pay taxes are themselves not complying with the tax laws and regulations.

When you have a secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (the tax writing committee) accused of cheating on their taxes, it greatly undermines the moral authority of the tax collectors, making the common citizens feel like chumps and, hence, much more willing to try to legally avoid or illegally evade taxes themselves.

These two rising vectors will further increase agorism in the social dynamic by social interaction on the web and direct actions publicly. The philosophically aware agorist explaining the basics to those already practicing it, will help demystify and introduce the concept.

The summation of the article, contends that the ever oppressive and corrupt state, conversely gives rise to the black market.

The evidence is unambiguous; governments cannot increase tax compliance and decrease the size of the underground economy by ever increasing and more onerous regulations.

It is no accident that those governments that allow their citizens a high degree of personal and financial liberty, including financial privacy, and spend taxpayer dollars wisely, honestly and competently, have much smaller underground sectors than corrupt and oppressive governments. Washington, take note.

The public is detaching from the statist mindstate incrementally, awakening to a paradigm shift of liberty from the state. There is no need to protest and hit the streets, just invest that energy into direct action in counter-economics that don’t empower the state.

Agora! Anarchy! Action!

In it, she discusses the trials experienced by a group of people attempting to keep their focus in the midst of economic and natural upheaval; and the ways in which their positive outlook was integral to the continued survival of their community.

Our community’s land near the Hood Canal in Washington State is called Sahale. Out at Sahale, when it rains, it pours. The metal roofs are pounded by rain that comes straight down from the low clouds. When the sun comes out, it is brighter and hotter than in Seattle. The sky is crystal clear or perhaps dotted with white puffy clouds. When the trees grow here, they grow really tall, and wherever blackberry vines get started, there is no end to them. We can grow fruit about which city-dwellers say, “Really? You can’t grow that here.”

We found this abundant land in 2001 and created our learning and retreat center, a budding ecovillage on 70 acres. Sahale is the Chinook word for “heaven on earth” and it has felt like that for us.

Yet we have also found ourselves tempted by perceptions of scarcity. At the same time that we acquired this land, we also began developing an urban housing cooperative for 19 individuals, families, and couples. This project included a community center and café for us and for the broader neighborhood and community of Seattle. Sahale has succeeded, while the in-town development failed.

We paid all accounts to outside vendors, leaving a loss of about $500,000 to members in loans and deposits on their shares in the cooperative. Even more than the loss of money, we grieved the loss of the dream of our community in service through this center. Some members left, and we lost our way for awhile. At the same time, many of us were working to develop the buildings and rejuvenate the land out at Sahale. We fell in love with her wonderful energy. Sahale sustained us through the difficult times of healing from our loss of an in-town center for our community-building work. Now, when we talk together we realize we still hold our dream dear to us, and plans are beginning for another way to create an “in-town” living and community center.

This is a picture of an experience of abundance and scarcity, woven together—loss and gain. In Richard’s words, “Our community believes in the power of learning together. In fact, as we engaged the development of these two properties, we stated that our first goal was learning about facilities development. In retrospect during our evaluation we realized that we had actually lost learning as our first priority and had been caught up in an “edifice complex”—caring more about building external facilities than about developing our inner facilities and abilities. Thus, one aspect of our learning is that our experience of scarcity and abundance starts inside of us.”

Read the rest at Communities magazine »

Brewing is a tradition that stems back thousands of years. Some anthropologists suggest that it was beer, and not bread, that led to the birth of agriculture. Homebrewing is the art and hobby of creating alcoholic beverages at home. Alcohol is produced by fermentation, or the chemical break down of sugars by yeasts and bacteria. More commonly, the term homebrewing means “beer brewing” but most homebrewers today branch out and brew several or all of the possible beverages at home.

This handy little six-page pamphlet offers up heady information on the following topics, each with useful breakdowns:

• What is Homebrewing
• Why is homebrewing important to Agorists?
• “The Very Basics”
• Where to go from here.

My mouth is watering already.

From Last Blog on Earth:

This week’s CityBeat takes a brief look at San Diego’s local “Voluntaryist” movement, that is, market anarchists who believe in abolishing government in favor of a social system determined exclusively by the free market.

These folks believe that taxation isn’t just theft, it’s a form of slavery. They believe so strongly in this they demand those who collect taxes, such as San Diego County Treasurer Dan McAllister, must explain how they can morally accept such a job.

As mentioned in the story, that’s exactly what happened in December. Joseph Corbett, a market anarchist, turned up at the San Diego Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office with a bag of $1 bills to pay his property tax. He also brought a videographer and a bunch of voluntaryist friends. [...]

On a private mailing list, someone asked:

“Aren’t Black Markets and Free Markets mutually Exclusive?”

Free markets don’t exist in any real sense anywhere today. State prohibitions, subsidies, taxes, regulation, privilege and the rest make them impossible on any substantial scale.

“Black market” as commonly understood is a problematic term, since it encompasses both harmless things that governments ban (the cannabis trade, for instance) in most places, as well as harmful things that governments also ban (murder for hire, for example). [...]

Be sure to check out the post at NoState for a downloadable PowerPoint presentation, more explanation, and some comments with additional ideas and takes on the subject.

This is approximately 30 minutes of a talk given at at Brave New Books in Austin, Texas by Rob Gray of the American Open Currency Standard (AOCS) and the AG Trading Post.

Topics Rob covers include: the definition of money, pros and cons of other alternative and local currencies (e.g., Ithaca HOURs and the Liberty Dollar), local economies, and more.

Unfortunately, the audio cuts off before he gets deeper into talking about the benefits of the AOCS itself; but you can read more about that at their site above. If anyone has audio or video of this talk, or another talk given by AOCS, please let me know.

The topic Rob is talking about when the audio starts is, “What Is Money?”

(My apologies in advance for the less-than-optimal audio quality — it was recorded on a phone; it is definitely still listenable though. I tried to clean it up, but an audio master I am not. If you are one, feel free to download this and work your magic on it…)

Download AOCS Talk in Austin on 3-24-2010 (MP3) (right-click and choose “save-as”)

For a discussion of alternative currencies, community trade currencies, and mixing the idea of value-backed currencies with trade (as AOCS does on a flexible, community-to-community basis); visit Brad Spangler’s “Alternative currencies, LETS, e-gold and counter-economics.”

The article discusses the differences between the public, private, and real–free–enterprise sectors. The introduction of the article outlines how what is perceived as the “private sector” is really nothing more than a branch of the public one.

…from the perspective of the freedom activist there is no significant difference between the private sector and the public sector. The implication of this is that to the extent that freedom activists work or do business in the private sector, they support “the enemy.”

I demarcate a third sector I call the REAL free-enterprise sector — also called the “underground economy” or the “black economy.” Free enterprise doesn’t occur in the private sector; it occurs in the real free-enterprise sector.

It goes on to discuss how freedom-lovers can make the jump from the state-entangled private sector, to the truly free market; in a variety of ways. Following this, it asks readers to calculate their “Freedom Quotient,” i.e., how much of their labor and effort is actually benefitting the machinery of the state, versus the amount benefiting the cause of true liberty. The method of calculation is outlined as:

Suppose that I call the degree to which I promote freedom in my daily activities my “Liberation Factor” (LF) and the degree to which I support government my “Enslavement Factor” (EF)…

In my personal case, because of the work I do (e.g., writing articles like this, providing freedom news , etc.), and the ways I organize and conduct my business affairs, my LF (Liberation Factor) is quite high.

My EF (Enslavement Factor) is reasonably low. It’s still well above zero because:
(1) I pay rent to a “private-sector” corporation.
(2) I use government monopoly fiat currencies for about 10% of my transactions.
(3) I use “private-sector” utilities and banks.
(4) I buy, groceries, gas, etc. from “private-sector” corporations.
(5) Most of the above transactions include added-on taxes.
(6) I pay for car registration and a driver’s license.

I guesstimate that on a scale of 100, my LF = 90 and my EF = 10.

If we calculate “Freedom Quotient” (FQ) as LF – EF, then my FQ = +80.

Based on this assessment, the article outlines ways in which you can ensure — as much as possible — that your efforts are not being misdirected in ways to which you are morally opposed as a lover of freedom. For example:

If you’re a business-person, consider adding e-gold as one of your payment systems. Many people are interested in starting their own businesses. If you’re starting a business, consider using e-gold and some of the other digital currencies as payment systems. You could start a business that provides people with information on how to “beat the system.” As an example, see Offshore Products and Services.

Mann’s article is extensive, and supplies many useful methods, links, and starting points for economic freedom — even while living in a system of state coercion. It is well worth reading and taking to heart. For a great reading of this article with commentary, check out the Complete Liberty Podcast, episode 73.

Most of the article is a very informative historical accounting of the lengths the Hunt family went to to acquire godly sums of silver as a hedge against possible declines in the oil market (their main source of wealth); but which quickly became a pursuit worthy of its own empire.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, (the [Hunt's] Circle K Ranch in Texas) brother in law Randy Kreiling and his brother Tilmon held a shooting contest amongst the cowboys to find the best marksmen. The dozen best marksmen were hired for a special assignment to ride shotgun on one of the largest private silver transfers in history.

The Circle K cowboys flew on 3 specially chartered 707 jets to Chicago and New York where they were met by a convoy of armored trucks during the middle of the night. Forty million oz of silver was loaded onto the planes and they immediately flew to Zurich where they were met by another convoy of armored trucks. The cowboys loaded the trucks and silver was dispersed to six different storage locations in Switzerland.

The transfer cost Bunker and Herbert [H.L. Hunt's sons] $200,000. The storage costs for the 40 million oz in Switzerland and the 15 million oz still in the US amounted to $3 million/year.

LaBorde concludes his retelling with a warning regarding the way and form in which they acquired their precious metals, and how it lead to their eventual downfall. This is a must-read for anyone considering entry into the precious-metals market.