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