> If all he was trying to do was exist without cash soiling his hands, then he could simply have engaged in a barter existence and done very well for himself.

> If all he was trying to do was exist without cash soiling his hands, then he could simply have engaged in a barter existence and done very well for himself. Well, yeah, that's what he did. That is the point. He forced himself to deeply - even intimately - engage with the markets for every good he used, on a level that is unattainable through the largely anonymous transactions made with money. Money only communicates price. Barter tells you about the other dependencies. Since his purpose was to learn about forms of waste in society, I think his strategy is quite good.