55 Ways to Starve the Beast

By Daisy Luther

A term coined in 1985 by an unnamed staffer of the Reagan administration was “Starve the Beast”.  This referred to a fiscally conservative political strategy to cut government spending by paying less in taxes.  So, in the original sense, “the Beast” was the government, and people were to starve said beast by spending less and using loopholes to pay less in taxes.

Now the Beast is a whole lot bigger.

These days the Beast has a lot more tentacles than just the government.

The system now consists of the government and all aspects of corporatism.  Big Agri, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Food, Big Banking, and Big Oil, to name a few.  It seems that now it’s the Beast that’s doing the starving, as small businesses close because they can’t compete with Walmart, bigger chains are run out of existence by Amazon, the family farm is on its way out because it can’t compete with the huge, subsidized mega-farms, and people are going bankrupt because they can’t pay the outrageous medical bills…

These mega-corporations aren’t there to make our lives better or easier. They’re there to make as much money as possible and they’ll run you over if you get in their way.

(Please note that there are Amazon links in this article to show you the books I recommend. You may be able to find these books from local sellers.)

When I first wrote this article in 2013, Big Tech wasn’t quite as prevalent. I’ve added some recommendations from the comments over the years to expand this list.

Perhaps more of us need to starve the beast.

Is it convenient to starve the beast and avoid doing business with mega-corporations or to work around funding endless wars that kill and maim our young people while enriching the Military-Industrial Complex?

No, but it’s time.

It’s time for another financial revolution – one where people group together and use the power of the pocketbook to starve all the arms of this Beast that would swallow us whole.  If we vote with our dollars, eventually there will, of necessity, be a paradigm shift that returns us to simpler days, when families who were willing to work hard could make a living without selling their souls to the corporate monoliths.

This documentary will change the way you think about money
Money Revealed

Every penny you spend with small local businesses is a penny that the big box stores won’t have.  Everything that you buy secondhand or barter for is an item on which you won’t pay sales tax.  Disassociate yourself completely with “the system” that is making Western civilization broke, overweight and unhealthy.

Here are 55 ways to starve the Beast.

Starve the Beast by taking as many of these steps as possible…

1. Grow your own food.
2. Shop at local businesses with no corporate ties.
3. Use natural remedies instead of pharmaceuticals whenever possible.
4. Homeschool your children. If you can’t homeschool, at the very least, spend time undoing the indoctrination by giving them the tools to think critically.
5. Walk or bike instead of driving when you can.
6. When possible, get care from naturopaths and healers instead of doctors.
7. Make paper logs from scraps for free heat if you have a wood-burning fireplace or stove.
8. Boycott all processed foods.
9. Shop at local farmer’s markets or buy directly from the farms themselves.
10. Don’t buy from corporate stores: Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Home Depot. Instead, pay a few extra dollars and buy from local vendors.
11. Give vouchers as gifts for an evening of babysitting, a homemade meal, walking the dog, doing a repair, or cleaning.
12. Join a CSA or farm co-op.
13. Ditch television (and all the propaganda and commercials). If you want to view programs, enroll in a streaming service without commercials like Netflix.
14. Participate in the barter system – although remember that even if no money changes hands, the government would like for you to let them know so you can be duly taxed.
15. Buy secondhand from yard sales, Craigslist, and thrift stores.
16. Sell your own unwanted goods by having a yard sale or putting an ad on Craigslist.
17. Repair things instead of replacing them.
18. Avoid fast-food restaurants and chain restaurants.
19. Dine at locally owned establishments if you eat out.
20. Brew your own beer and wine.
21. Cook from scratch to avoid all those Big Food chemicals and additives.
22. Grow or gather medicinal herbs.
23. Give homemade gifts.
24. Attend free local activities: lectures, concerts, play days at the park, library events.
25. Dumpster dive and pick up things from the curb.
26. Play outside: hike, bike, picnic.
27. Mend clothing.
28. Invite someone over for dinner instead of meeting at a chain restaurant.
29. Throw creative birthday parties at home for your kids instead of renting a venue.
30. Travel to other countries and note how most are not filled with mega-corporations, and local businesses still thrive.
31. Bring your coffee with you in a travel mug.
32. Do all of your Christmas shopping with small local businesses and artisans.
33. Reduce your electricity usage with candles, solar power, and non-tech entertainment.
34. Drop the thermostat and put on a sweater.
35. Bring your snacks and drinks in a cooler when you go on a road trip.
36. Stay home – it’s way easier to avoid temptations that way. Shopping should not be a form of entertainment.
37. Pack lunches for work and school.
38. Make delicious homemade treats as a hostess gift.
39. Close your bank account or at the very least, strictly limit your balance.
40. Visit u-pick berry patches and orchards, then preserve your harvest for the winter.
41. Use precious metals stored at home as your savings account.
42. Raise backyard chickens for your own eggs.
43. If you are a smoker, roll your own cigarettes – if possible go one step further and grow tobacco.
44. Brew your own beer, wine, and liquor.
45. Use solar power for lighting or cooking.
46. Collect rainwater for use in the garden.
47. Learn to forage.
48. Buy heavy, solid, handmade furniture instead of the flimsy imported stuff
49. At the holidays, focus on activities and traditions instead of gifts.
50. Make your own bath and body products using pure ingredients like coconut oil, essential oils, and herbal extracts
51. Use alternative social media.
52. Get an old-fashioned flip phone while you still can.
53. Drive an older car without GPS tracking.
54. Use a VPN like ExpressVPN to keep your location information masked on your electronic devices.
55. Avoid adding surveillance technology such as Ring or Nest to your home.

Will these activities save America from corporatism and government overreach? Maybe not, but at least you’ll be doing your small part to rebel. Like David fighting Goliath, we are small but we are mighty enemies.

How do you Starve the Beast?

Do you make an effort to avoid doing business with massive corporations? Do you try to extricate yourself from government controls as often as possible? Please, add your suggestions below.

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper, where this article first appeared. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and lives in the mountains of Virginia with her two daughters and an ever-growing menagerie. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.