As a rule, before I buy a software program I check to see if there’s a free alternative available. I might have to sacrifice some features and customer support, but otherwise there’s no reason to drop $500 on Microsoft Office when I could use OpenOffice.

Did you know it’s possible to do this in real life? People in rural areas of Australia buy very little, and make do with trading and borrowing. My brother is 40 years old, lives in Campbell, and hasn’t bought a car the entire time I’ve known him.

Like on the internet, the imprimature of big business is something you can avoid if you know your way around. Want a guitar? I guarantee you that somewhere in the world there is a person who would give you a guitar for free, just to get it out of his house. Maybe there’s a mechanic somewhere whose house is being forclosed and is selling his collection of rebuilt cars for $600 each. Earlier last year we threw out a perfectly good computer monitor, because we didn’t have enough space in the garage.

Places like Craigslist are an imperfect way to distribute unwanted goods because everyone wants a profit. But it would be a real kick in the ass to businesses if some sort of communal dumping pool was started.