Free

The best things in life are free - why are people so eager to spend most of their days 'making money'? Most likely, out of habit and lack of information. More and more people increase their happiness by sharing, instead of ripping each other off. Even science catches up, claiming that our brains produce much more happy hormones (serotonine) when sharing then when spending money on oneself.

About half a year ago, the Friday Free Shop opened its non-existing doors to the public, and has become a predictable part of Melbourne's city scape, at City Square, the tiny patch of land dedicated to the public in Melbourne. There's a Melbourne chapter of Food not Bombs, a global initiative that cooks up free vegetarian meals for hungry souls.

Of course, most people don't mind sharing with their friends for free - unfortunately, most people would not consider strangers as friends they haven't met yet. The Free Shop helps to win hearts and minds for this cause, like other opportunities to get something for nothing.

The 'Free' section in most commercial advertising papers is usually quite sparse, but here's some starting points to get on a hunt for free stuff:

• Zilch
• Freecycle
• Free Treasure
• Melbourne Free Stuff

There's also the opportunity to find free things on the nature strip, at least where the local council doesn't consider hard rubbish a safety issue. Indeed, nature strips could be converted into community gardens, but that's also something councils might not like. But then, councils are no longer legal, and the humans still harbouring this delusion might get the point that growing food poses no harm for the community, no matter what some silly by-laws might dictate.