(Not) buying stuff

There are multiple reasons why we use reasonable effort to get the things we need without buying them. This cultural aspect has a history going back to pre-Kanthaus times. Instead of buying, we try to rescue, repair, borrow, produce and receive gifted the things we need.

Reasons why not-buying is our default approach

• money is a relatively scarce resource for us as a donation-based, non-commercial project
• every purchase creates additional book-keeping work
  • more generally, working with money increases internal bureaucracy, which can threaten working towards primary aims
• decision simplicity: since buying things creates market demand, we consider many factors when we do. Not-buying allows us to ignore many of those factors.
• through borrowing and receiving gifts, we grow and strengthen our social network and contribute towards a culture of sharing
• through rescuing and repairing, we learn skills of resilience for facing future uncertainty

Factors we consider when buying things

• Production
  • prefer used
  • environmental impact
  • worker conditions
• Properties
  • durability
  • repairability
  • cleanability
  • disposal