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So, my bro and sister have a guy surfing their couch right now. A really cool guy from Germany, that's cycling trough Europe and Asia.
We had great fun last days and I wish him all best. Check his blog here if you want -> http://www.berlin-hanoi.com/ (you can hear my drunken kung fu style talk in one of the videos) :)
So far from my own experience I really like couchsurfing, but I'm still a bit paranoid about all that. What do you think of it? Did you had any experience so far?
couchsurfing allright..............when your young
I'm more of a parkbench guy myself
seems kind of like an uneven relationship. You get to travel around without any cares while someone else has to work to pay the rent so you can have a place to stay.
Not really.
yeah, not really, some couch surfers actually realize and appreciate the fact that someone has to pay for the couch and they do give something in return
I have had some couch surfing experience in the past. Not by choice or for any kind of fun. More like, it was cold out and I needed somewhere to sleep.
Now I have my own couch and I surf it regularly.
I know a great place where you can stay if you don't have anywhere to go, they give you a bed and some food and all you have to do is swear eternal devotion to Jesus.
I on the other hand accept sinners, and visa and mastercard.
The key here is that rent generally stays the same for them, whether their couch is filled or not. It's more of an inconvenience than an expense, and that's easily compensated for by good company.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morning Glory
Problem is that every bit of useful space on earth has been somebody's 'property' since well before any of us were even born; a system under which somebody generally has to pay (or pass up on being paid elsewhere) for us merely to exist, even if we occupy space and use resources well within the margins of what's available divided by how many of us there are. 'S a major pain in the arse if you want to live a lifestyle other than stationary bourgeois consumerism, but we'll never kick the habit while our first worry remains whether all our human relationships are financially 'even'.
Most people will claim to 'know' that not everything needs to be convertible to currency in order to be valuable, but when it comes down to it, deviating from the 'equal exchange of wealth' formula is almost always accepted outright as a social injustice.
i am an EXPERT couch surfer. watch me :D
I know what you mean and I know what a scam it is. but the thing is that the kind of people who claim to believe in a free society don't seem to object to other people working toward as you say "bourgeoisie consumerism" to enable them to live their lifestyles of immaterial anarchism, which means that they are just another product of the system and not working towards it's destruction.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raza
Living on a space that is collectively shared and owned and paid for in money by no one is anti-capitalist. Living rent free on someone else's property that pays rent on it isn't anti-capitalist, it's just being a mooch.
None of which is to say that I wouldn't let people that I cared about stay in my house for free, I'd even let them sleep in the bed and I'd take the couch and work to pay the rent... but it still is an unequal relationship in principle and I'm not going to pretend that it isn't.
Oh, we do; it's an often voiced preference to find ways to live that nobody pays for*, rather than ways that have somebody else pay for it. Growing, dumpster diving or stealing food are preferable to having it given to you, squatting is preferable to couch surfing, etcetera. You don't always have that choice though, and unless you want to completely isolate yourself from people more inclined to spending money you're going to be given or have things shared with you that cost them money whether you go looking for it or not - declining them all on ideological principle would be a major social handicap. Mostly though, it needs to be remembered that the only reason to live a 'lifestyle of immaterial anarchism' is to get more joy out of life by avoiding the detrimental loops of consumerism. That is our revolution; defining ourselves in opposition to the established order is only a product of that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morning Glory
*Capitalists may note that it's not strictly nobody paying because these options generally mean that a for-profit business of some sort loses money on it, but unlike mooching of individuals this is actually destructive to capitalism at large.
I used to couchsurf on tour and I am so happy I do not have to do that any more but I miss getting to really know so many new people. That was the best part of couchsurfing.