Jeff Bennett's Blog

We live in an interesting time.  Deepest recession since the Great Depression.  There are some signs of stabilization which is good.  This stabilization is the result of all the liquidity that has been pumped into the economy, not necessarily the result of an organic expansion yet.  I am cheering for expansion but it is not there yet.

There are many things that are different today than ever before such as the globalization of our economies, instant access to information, easy flow of funds across currencies, dependency on oil, shifting labor pool, diminished manufacturing base and more.  This leads to interdependency in our world and the economies have been reset at a different level.

Due to all of this it is my opinion that as we all seek continued stabilization and then expansion we must look at more and more ways to do more with less.  The savings rate is up as of late and this is an indicator of the lack of credit that has existed and consumers are not spending.  We also must look to take better care of this world that we live in.  We must look at what we own and find alternative ways to exchange or “Swap” these things for things that we want and need.  This is good for the envionment.  This is good for our wallets.  This is good for us and our “Swap” partners.

I came across a book, “The Scavengers’ Manifesto,” that was authored by Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson.  “The Scavenger’s Manifesto,” looks at the concepts of salvaging, swapping, repurposing, reusing and recycling over the ages.  There has been a very strong psychological movement in our societies that has driven the culture of “excessive” consumption which has powered economies, but it has also generated massive consumer debt and poor ecological practices.  Despite this there has been longstanding movements and activity scavenging.  Barter has existed since before there was currency.  In modern times swapping has existed in many categories like books, seeds, skis, clothes and more.  I have been working with the leading swap site on the web for the last year, a company called SwapTree.com that I have posted about frequently..it is a cool site for swapping books, cds, dvds and video games.  It is surely appropriate to consider economic and ecological impact in how we now lead our lives more than ever.  I found this to be an interesting read and wanted to share with all of you.

One of the authors, Anneli Rufus, provides a nice overview of the material in “The Scavengers Manifesto” in the video on YouTube below.