Is Money Bullshit?

Before the financial collapse and the resurgence of bartering, another kind of trade made the news. In 2006, a Canadian man named Kyle MacDonald garnered international attention after he successfully bartered a single red paperclip all the way until he obtained a house. The barter took almost a full year and 14 trades. He traded his red paperclip for a pen that looks like a fish. The fish pen traded for a handmade door knob which was then traded for a camp stove. The camp stove was traded for a 100-watt generator which was then traded for an empty keg and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. Those items were traded for a snowmobile; the snowmobile was traded all the way up for an afternoon with rock star Alice cooper, a KISS snow globe and then a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie. Finally, the town of Kipling, Canada offered MacDonald a farmhouse for the movie role.