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Ice Cream Tacos & The Art of Bartering

By AJ Leon on September 28, 2009 8:00 AM | Comment | No TrackBacks
icecreamtaco.jpgWhen I was sophomore in high school my friend Eric and I had an agreement.  This agreement was based on a mutual and symbiotic arrangement that provided us both with relative equitable value with respect to the services we were in need of at the time.  It wasn't contractual, however, in retrospect that would've added a layer of texture to this tale that would've made a good story a great one.  It was fairly simple really. 

Eric was scrawny and got his ass beat for running his mouth.  Eric's rich parents happened to provide him with an unlimited supply of snack tickets.  I too had run into this "ass beating" problem, except a bit earlier on in life and had judiciously picked up weight training as a preemptive maneuver to thwart such attacks in high school.  So I was a pretty big dude.  I was also as poor as poor could be, and never had the money to purchase the snack tickets that were necessary to acquire the most coveted commodity of my fourteenth year of existence...the ice cream taco. 

So here we were, Eric and I, him with his rich kid snack tickets and me with my overly developed frame.  I possessed the ability to provide a service that Eric needed, protection from the punks in eleventh grade.  Conversely, he was able to distribute a product that I needed to acquire my beloved ice cream taco, snack tickets.  It was a quid pro quo match made in pre-adolescent heaven.

In spite of what some scholarship may postulate, "barter economics" have been existence since the advent of recorded history.  The best example of this is articulated in the Sumerian poem "The Wooing of Inanna".  Dumuzid, the fifth king of Sumeria, is trying to hook up with the goddess Inanna, but she doesn't want any piece of him because he is a smelly, dirty, old shepherd.  After a great deal of posturing and cajoling, Damuzid throws down his pocket aces, fresh milk with cream.  To which Inanna expeditiously requests that he "plow her damp field". 

The concept of bartering has been something that I have begun to engage in a bit more frequently due to the economic climate.  As workshifters we have to be scrupulous and wise during these times.  Bartering may not generate income, but it affords us the opportunity to mitigate expenses.  In the video below, I talk about our latest barter agreement with a local coffee shop.


Do you see value in bartering as a workshifter?  What barter agreements have you or could you pursue?

Photo by: ms.Tea

About the Author

AJ Leon

AJ Leon

AJ Leon has been a vagabond workshifter since October 2008, traveling over the world with his wife and business partner, helping charities embrace the social web and utilizing "real time" web technologies to empower third world communities. AJ is the Co-Founder of the LaC project, a company with no headquarters, comprised of a workshifting staff, dispersed around the world, dedicated to seeking, collaborating & partnering with those hell bent on changing the world.

Read more articles by AJ Leon at Workshifting.com
Twitter: @ajleon  |  Website: http://www.thelacproject.com
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Categories: Bartering , Deal Making , Video Tags: bartering , dealmaking , video

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Ice Cream Tacos & The Art of Bartering
icecreamtaco.jpg
When I was sophomore in high school my friend Eric and I had an agreement.  This agreement was based on a mutual and symbiotic arrangement that provided us both with relative equitable value with respect to the services we were in need of at the time.  It wasn't contractual, however, in retrospect that would've added a layer of texture to this tale that would've made a good story a great one.  It was fairly simple really. 

Eric was scrawny and got his ass beat for running his mouth.  Eric's rich parents happened to provide him with an unlimited supply of snack tickets.  I too had run into this "ass beating" problem, except a bit earlier on in life and had judiciously picked up weight training as a preemptive maneuver to thwart such attacks in high school.  So I was a pretty big dude.  I was also as poor as poor could be, and never had the money to purchase the snack tickets that were necessary to acquire the most coveted commodity of my fourteenth year of existence...the ice cream taco. 

So here we were, Eric and I, him with his rich kid snack tickets and me with my overly developed frame.  I possessed the ability to provide a service that Eric needed, protection from the punks in eleventh grade.  Conversely, he was able to distribute a product that I needed to acquire my beloved ice cream taco, snack tickets.  It was a quid pro quo match made in pre-adolescent heaven.

In spite of what some scholarship may postulate, "barter economics" have been existence since the advent of recorded history.  The best example of this is articulated in the Sumerian poem "The Wooing of Inanna".  Dumuzid, the fifth king of Sumeria, is trying to hook up with the goddess Inanna, but she doesn't want any piece of him because he is a smelly, dirty, old shepherd.  After a great deal of posturing and cajoling, Damuzid throws down his pocket aces, fresh milk with cream.  To which Inanna expeditiously requests that he "plow her damp field". 

The concept of bartering has been something that I have begun to engage in a bit more frequently due to the economic climate.  As workshifters we have to be scrupulous and wise during these times.  Bartering may not generate income, but it affords us the opportunity to mitigate expenses.  In the video below, I talk about our latest barter agreement with a local coffee shop.


Do you see value in bartering as a workshifter?  What barter agreements have you or could you pursue?

Photo by: ms.Tea
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