On Wed, 15 Jul 1998 21:20:05 -0400, Phil Dunlap wrote:
>The scene had changed by the time I went into practice with my father,
>though I still got plenty of victuals the locals were now savvy enough
>to be taking advantage of the gun collectors that were coming through. I
>did get a couple of offers from patients to 'take care' of anyone that I
>thought needed 'taking care of' (sorely tempting on a couple of
>occasions) and free hunting on most any ranch I wanted. Never did get a
>pin bag, though.
The 'trading' of goods for services is, of course, ancient. It can
be very interesting to re-visit in these turbulent times!
Working on Mustique Island in the WI, many of the locals could not
afford health care. I worked out a scheme of 'trading' with them.
I did 'doctoring' for beer, rum, eggs, chicken, cake, fish (due to
dispute between the rich and fishermen, I was the only one on the
island who had fresh fish!), carpentry, car cleaning and a host of
other goods.
It worked very well. Of course, in ancient times that was the norm
(and still is in a way). The peasants grew food to exchange for
services. A loaf of bread for teaching my kid at school or treatment.
The oldest such exchange is, of course, sex for cash. That is until
governments perfected the art of cash for arms, cash for access, cash
for questions, cash for spanking, cash for anything you like guv as
long as we remain perceived as purer than pure ;-)
Do you still have the 'Yellowbelly' by the way?
Ahmad
________________________________________
Dr Ahmad Risk
http://mednetics.org
home: +44 1273 748198
work: +44 1737 240022
fax: +44 1737 244660
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