3) What's ShareFare?

ShareFare:
ShareFare is an economic paradigm where a producer presents their fare to the public at no set price, and where the public is able to pay what they feel is appropriate, and/or pay through a barter or skill-trade arrangement that they've worked out with the producer beforehand.

No-Prices:
Like in nature: nothing's for sale, and nothing's for free.

The #1 Question:
To address the elephant in the room: Yes, the ShareFare paradigm allows a person to take something without immediately contributing something in return. Usually though, if someone doesn't immediately give something back, they will down the road. Most folks love the invitation to be a steward, friend, and neighbor, and understand it's not an invitation to take advantage.

So say it happens...
Say someone takes a CD at a live show and doesn't immediately contribute something back, what will the band do?

We'll hope the person enjoys the gift enough to give back in a supportive way later on. We'll also likely figure that the generosity of others will make up for what this other person wasn't inspired to give back. If someone says they want to give back but doesn't have dough, we ask that they sew up a few CD's in exchange. If they vocally ask "is this OK?" and hold out $3 for a CD we might ask if they can exchange something else besides money, or see if they'd consider downloading the songs off the website instead of taking a CD, etc.

Of course as with any no-priced resource, the invitation to be a steward is not an invitation to be a thief. If someone (never happened and likely never will) is taking way more than they need, grabbing piles of CD's and throwing them around or whatever, like any good steward we'll try to stop them.

The Philosophy:
Like the philosophy behind Anti-Copyright/ Pro-Stewardship (#2), the idea is that by giving both producers (us) and receivers (the public) of goods the opportunity to practice being a steward of a resource (and by extension, one another ), we will have all gained practice at thinking outside of ourselves and considering the larger community of life in our decisions.

Who Else Is Doing It?
Paradigms similar to ShareFare continue to be practiced with great success by mainstream businesses such as One World Café in Salt Lake City. The cafe was "in the black" (turning a profit) after only 2 years of being open! No mean feat considering it normally takes cafes up to 10 years to turn a profit, if they're able to stay open at all (most new restaurants and cafes fail).

I've also seen ShareFare used by a family-owned bakery (they had a do-it-yourself cash register there too!) on Hwy 1, just South of Santa Cruz, and at Horseshoe Mountain Pottery in Spring City, UT - a pottery shop that's never locked, and contains shelves and shelves of gorgeous pieces. There's a sticker price on each piece of pottery, and you just drop your money in a metal box if you take a piece.

What's an "appropriate" amount for me to donate? I don't want to give too much or too little!
We really enjoy people just entirely making up what they want to contribute (if they want to contribute), but for those who don't have time for guesswork and just want to hook us up, we have a 'suggested donation' amount near our merch. Online on our No-Prices page we also talk a little bit about what goes behind each of the things we're presenting, and that might help you decide what/if you want to donate. If you want to ask us questions, feel free to email syp@shakeyourpeace.com Fare well!