Depends how you live, but yeah. It can be expensive.
Comment on The unAbomber. Otherwise, I agree.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago“The more I work in tech, the more I wish I was independently wealthy.”
I love how people use the word “just” when making statements about the simple life.
Simple ain’t always cheap…
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Simple ain’t easy either. Fix yer plumbing, fix your roof, fix yer fence, feed yer chickens (yes, every day!), clean their poop, etc. etc. etc.
Homesteading is a lot of work, and you can’t just go away for a weekend to visit a friend or explore a new city. It needs constant attention, and the more “independent/self-reliant/off-the-grid” you want to be, the more you need to do everything yourself.
And even then you need to buy supplies and materials. You’re not going to grow a year’s-worth of food in your backyard vegetable patch, and you’re not gonna make your own lumber, pvc, copper wire, etc.
There’s a lot you can do to achieve a greater degree of independence, but ultimately it’s still dependencies all the way down.
Even the Buddha recognized the interconnectedness of everything in the world; he wasn’t just some detached stoic with a community of self-sustaining monks. They depended on the generosity of their surrounding communities, and to this day Buddhist monks still do.
stickly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A lot depends on how many luxuries you can go without. Tiny house means less work; no modern plumbing means no maintenence; ditch big hvac systems and only worry about heating/cooling a room or two; no indoor wiring needed if you only have a couple solar lamps. Yeah you’ll still have some reliance on getting stuff you can’t fabricate but it will be much less stuff
Livestock complicates things a bunch but it can be easier if you’re OK living off a simpler vegetarian diet and putting in the upfront legwork for more durable/low maintenance food sources (native food forest).
Your life might be dark and shitty but it will definitely be simpler and easier. But if you want to optimize for a higher QoL you’ll probably have to join a cultist farm commune.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Not every commune is a cult, and we should really break that stigma…
stickly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not necessarily, but one focused on an extreme primitivist lifestyle probably are. People generally don’t coordinate maximum isolation from society without some ulterior motives.