Money, politics, self-sufficiency

In his comment ‘Problems with Gifting Economies’ (‘Arena Magazine’ 121) Andy Scerri took Patrick Jones to task for points made in his review article ‘Gifting Economies’ (‘Arena Magazine’ 119). This article had taken the book co-edited by us, ‘Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies’, as a launching point for a discussion of the potential of permaculture and other collective sufficiency initiatives to address the key economic, political and social challenges we all face today. Scerri attacked the approach taken in our book, though his commentary showed neither a familiarity with, nor any detailed critique of the work. Indeed many of his assumptions are unfounded.