Most of the time this question comes in a sarcastic way after I shared how wealth comes to me in the form of a gift. Something like “yeah, sure… don’t you think your generous donors did have to purchase these gifts for you, or hunt for the money they kindly offer you?“.
Here comes the mental again, playing its usual tricks. If you think the same way, I invite you to think not in a linear way, but in an organic way. Follow the magic of life. The world changes because a few persons begin something, and that somethings grows on the soil of the old system, at least for a certain time before it becomes its full autonomous ecosystem. Do you really believe that the first anti-slavery people lived 100% out of the slavery economy, right off the bat? It takes a few persons, then a hundred, then thousands and millions before the deep structure of the collective transmutes. Entanglement with the old system doesn’t mean we don’t have to make a step.
So for now, I patiently play with other gift economy aficionados like me around the world, active people who want to create technologies and infrastructures that will carry this evolution. Some good news here: this community grows quickly, some day it may not need the market economy to exist anymore.