A day without paying

PalmIn this world we've all built, not a single day can go by without spending. Spending doesn't stop, not even when we're asleep, while the refrigerator is on in the kitchen. But there is one thing we can do: choose one day a week and spend it without paying anything. Drinking coffee at home, defrosting the bread we'd been saving just in case, putting aside that pending purchase... The feeling is strange and powerful, because we suddenly pause in our status as consumers and remember that our existence goes beyond the act of taking out a card or a few coins. The activities that shouldn't be paid for are simple and, I'd dare say, humanizing: taking a walk, sitting on a bench and contemplating what's happening around us, reading that book we've had on the nightstand for months, listening to evocative music, or packing a lunchbox to take to work so we don't have to eat out.

Of course, there's an additional condition that would be helpful: what if we stopped thinking of looking at our phones as a way to pass the time? Isn't it time we became radical and went back to the roots of who we are, without any screen as an intermediary? Couldn't it be that we look at the screen to avoid looking at ourselves? Perhaps, if everyone did the same, businesses, the retail sector, and the restaurant industry would complain (even more). It's as legitimate as thinking that we no longer like this society in which money places us in certain categories compared to other people. The system doesn't want us to stop, because it thrives on our desire for possessions. Wouldn't it be wonderful to take control?