Some Efforts I’ve Made to Disengage From Capitalism
This is outside of Senator John McCain’s Tucson, AZ office. I’m inside “locked down” with another activist (c. 2000).
— In this Article —
Overview
What does it look like to disengage from capitalism? If you were a client, I’d help you figure that out, given your unique circumstances and privileges. But since this is a blog post and since there is no one-size-fits-all approach, I’ll answer it from my own perspective, as it applies to me. Which is to say, from the perspective of a fairly privileged, highly-educated, able-bodied white woman.
But before I do that, I’ll share a peek as to what it looked like when I was in my 20s, some 25(ish) years ago. My hope is that by sharing my own continuum, you’ll begin to envision yours.
Disengaging in the late 90s
When I was 23, I gave away nearly all of my possessions, dropped out of Purdue (again), and (illegally) pitched my tent nearby a tipi at the Minnehaha Free State in Minneapolis. I ate food that would have otherwise gone to waste, drank water from a free flowing stream, and earned bits of money here and there working (briefly) for the EarthFirst! Journal and a mobile organic food shelf. During my stint with the former, I received a room to crash in at their house in Eugene, OR. And on the days I volunteered with the latter, I received first dibs on free organic food that — in absence of our efforts — was destined for the landfills.
I had no home, no money, no real plan. I chose — and this is key — to live in intermittent stages of homelessness with the underlying awareness that if this lifestyle stopped working for me, my parents would no doubt help me out. Because they were middle class and resourced and were none to pleased when I embarked on this particular journey.
In fact, several of the activists I knew and ran with during that era of my life had trust funds and/or came from BIG money…
Anyway, in addition to an invisible safety net (aka my parents), I also had access to mutual aid. For example, Coldwater Café, Food Not Bombs, and Sisters Camelot were just some of the entities that put food in my belly.
The privilege of having access and choices
As a privileged, able-bodied white woman, I was able to blend into society — even with some of the “higher levels” — when I chose to, despite being unshowered and unhoused.
For example, when Senator John McCain won a couple of his presidential primary races in early 2000, he celebrated with a victory party at the Phoenix Hilton. My then-boyfriend had been volunteering with his campaign to gain intel, and a bunch of us activists managed to get inside undetected* and unfurl a large banner onstage accusing him of genocide. Or something to that effect.
*Of course, I had to clean up first. And so, I spent the drive up from Tucson shaving my crazy hairy legs and pits while rinsing my clogged razor out in a Nalgene bottle, and then changing into a dress I’d sourced from Goodwill. I can’t recall how I managed to doctor up my mega-greasy hair or hide the stink that resulted from not bathing for an extended period…
Had I not been a white woman who was able to somewhat “clean up” and who gained access via my then-boyfriend (who’d done a lot to “get inside”), there’s no way I would have made it through McCain’s security to witness the unfurling of a banner at the Hilton.
All this to say that I recognize today more than ever the privilege I had as an able-bodied white woman who had proximity to resources and access. Yes, I often sourced my meals from dumpsters — and I hated every minute of it when I did! — and I didn’t always know where I’d be sleeping in a given night. AND all I needed to do to leave that lifestyle was to call Mom and Dad and ask them to wire me money so that I could buy a Greyhound ticket home.
I had chosen my path with intention; it wasn’t slapped on me without my consent the way it is with so many living in our capitalist system.
Rejecting Capitalism Today
When I consider today what it means to reject capitalism these days — at least somewhat, considering it’s often illegal to be homeless or to even source food from the land — it looks quite different for me than it did back in 1999.
I work at a nonprofit, am paying off a shit ton of credit card debt, and am trying not to stress about my more than six figures of student loan debt that will follow me to my grave. My daughter is grown and doesn’t rely on my financially, and neither does my partner (though he pays the mortgage and I pay him what I think is a fair amount in “rent”).
Back in 1999, I walked away from my job, debts, and other obligations when I dropped out of college and burned my boats. Fast-forward a quarter of a century, and I’m no longer willing to do that.
But I can live in a way that reduces my contribution to capitalism. And so I do. Could I do more? Of course. And I know that I will continue to do more as I recognize opportunities to do so.
As it stands, I have more privilege today than I did back in 1999, as I have accumulated a couple (almost three) degrees and therefore fall into the camp of the highly educated.
I’m living in a well-kept bungalow in a relatively safe, Chicago neighborhood. I don’t know my neighbors well, and aside from an annual block party, few people meaningfully engage with each other on the regular. There are no mutual aid networks to speak of — at least none that I know of — in my neighborhood. No Food Not Bombs activists serving soup in Gompers Park to members of its neighboring homeless encampment. No deeply rooted sense of community that will be there for you, should you fall on hard times.
And while I wish my neighborhood was different in these respects, I’m not actually willing to take much action to create the changes I’d like to see.
However, I am flipping capitalism the bird in other ways.
Seeking opportunities to disengage
The most obvious opportunity for me — and arguably most of us — to disengage with capitalism is to change how I/we consume. Doing so requires a mindset shift, as it’s generally more expensive (though it doesn’t have to be) and less convenient to do so.
Here are some ways I attempt to do this:
I buy organic food. This isn’t because I’m all that worried about residual pesticides taking residence in my body; it’s because I care deeply about Mama Earth’s and migrant workers’ exposure to poisons (aka pesticides), and it’s because I cannot stand Big Ag. Even if I have to buy organic food from businesses I can’t stand. Even knowing that some of it comes from Big Ag. Even though it costs more (and yes, I am privileged enough to be able to shift my spending priorities so that I can do this). And whenever possible, I buy regenerative organic or locally grown food.
I rely primarily on public transit and my bicycle. Public transit for me isn’t crazy convenient (it takes me at least 20-30 minutes via bus to get to the L train and then another 30-45 minutes to get downtown…about as long as it takes me to bike there!). But I do it for environmental reasons, to save money, and to further disengage from capitalism.
I set boundaries around where (and how) I work. I work for a nonprofit organization that — though still steeped in capitalist culture — does a much better job of taking care of its employees than most. For example, our workdays are 7.5 hours and we do things like have processing circles when bad stuff happens. And we get a LOT of time off relative to other workplaces in the US. Prior to this job, I worked for a series of incredibly toxic (for-profit) organizations, and now that I’ve experienced an alternative that is a helluva lot better than most, I find myself frequently turning away recruiters who promise significantly higher wages should I be open to working elsewhere. In other words, there are substantial tradeoffs from a capitalism perspective (lower wages, less prestige, etc.) to setting boundaries around where I work, and I recognize the privilege I have in being able to do this — to have the choice to be selective as I am.
I minimize opportunities to be advertised to. There is a LOT wrapped up in this one: I left social media in 2024, I haven’t watched tv in decades, I swapped Chrome/Google and Gmail for Vivaldi/Qwant and Proton Mail, and I avoid shopping on Amazon like the plague. I also use the service Delete Me, which reduces access to my data by nefarious entities. The result is that I don’t see ads for a bunch of crap or feel like advertisers know all that much about me. And because I’m not constantly targeted with ads, it’s so much easier to not prop up capitalism by buying a bunch of crap I don’t actually need.
I buy music from Bandcamp on Fridays. This supports the artists and keeps money away from Spotify. I wanted to go full-in with Bandcamp — I don’t listen to a lot of music — but I was surprised when it came to how few of the artists I listened to were on that platform. So I’m using two platforms for music, the second one being Deezer (I literally just signed up today!). Prior to this, I had subscriptions to both Spotify and Soundcloud.
I do my best to support small brick-and-mortar businesses. Sometimes they’re local, and sometimes they're not. Note that I’ll sometimes use Amazon as a search engine and then place my order with the product’s source. And I’ll shop Bookshop.org when it’s too inconvenient to go to my favorite local bookstore, as a chunk of my purchase will get routed to said bookstore. I’ve gotten used to paying for shipping and not receiving my items overnight. It took some de-programming to get used to this, but now it’s no biggie for me. We are so used to the convenience that Amazon offers us, but this convenience comes at a cost.
I write off as much as I (legally) can in taxes. It deeply bothers me that something like 50% of the taxes I pay in the US fund the military, war, and the like. I have a small business in addition to my nonprofit wages, and everything that I can legally expense, I do. For the record, this can be a risky endeavor — the State of Illinois has effectively audited my 2025 return — but there’s nothing illegal or shady about what I’m doing. We’ll see what transpires (for the record, the IRS has been fine with my returns). For self-employed individuals, there is the (legally risky) option to go all-in via tax protesting. This isn’t about evading anything — it’s about keeping money out of military coffers. [For me — because I’ve already had taxes deducted from my paycheck, expensing everything I can results in a refund of some of these taxes.]
To be clear, there is privilege in being able to do things that reduce income, that require access that not everyone has, that cost more money, etc. But for many of my readers, privilege and access aren’t barriers. Yes, these kinds of actions require some sacrifice, and whether we choose to make these sacrifices often comes down to whether we choose to prioritize our values. If making such a decision is available to you, my heartfelt ask is that you consider doing so.
Circling Back to You…
I didn’t say much about “my why,” though it’s a critically important motivator when it comes to changing how we consume. If we don’t know our “why,” we’re bound to give up the first time we get slapped with an $8 shipping charge on a $17 order.
So, I encourage you to consider what your own “why” is for wanting to disengage to the degree that you can from capitalism.
What’s truly important to you that capitalism is destroying or is the antithesis to?
What’s going to keep you going when it’s hard to justify the cost — financial or otherwise — to change your consumption or otherwise disengage from capitalism? [For me, it’s my integrity; it’s because even though it seems like a drop in the bucket, I can’t not do it.]
And then, consider what you’re willing to do differently:
What is one tiny action you can commit to taking to begin disengaging with capitalism? Perhaps it’s to shop the bulk bins for grains and nuts, borrow something that you’d normally buy, or order your next book through Bookshop.org instead of Amazon…
How does it feel to make and honor this commitment?
What’s another tiny action you can commit to taking to disengage with capitalism a bit more?
How does it feel to make and honor this commitment?
That is all.
Would you like Coaching Support?
If you’d like to work with me in either a coaching or blended coaching and mentoring capacity to help you disengage from capitalism and move into deeper integrity with your values, click here to view the ways we can work together or here to schedule a free consult.
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Hi! I’m Kristi.
I help women & genderqueer folk liberate themselves from capitalism’s self-blaming hamster wheel of “mindset work”, bootstrapping, and “never enoughness” while navigating life’s day-to-day and existential challenges. This work is, ultimately, about helping humans move into deeper integrity with who they truly are so that they can flourish and contribute meaningfully to our collective liberation. Click here to learn more.
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