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Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

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Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#161

Post by Nasrudith »

chx wrote: post #117
mmjaa wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bollocks. It takes amazing amounts of oil to get the cheap stuff to the cities. The only reason these are more 'efficient' is because of arbitrary pricing - if we placed a higher value on oil-consumption, in terms of cost to the Earth, the cheap plastic junk wouldn't be being subsidised by our childrens future. I know its not a popular opinion, but the things that take so much oil to make and transport and deliver to…

Your problem is going to be that you not only need butter but also need a myriad other things and only a few of those can be self sufficient in a small local community. Yes, we shouldn't truck things from half a country away but that doesn't mean the energy consumption / CO2 footprint at the end of the day will be lower for a sprawl than a dense city. Yes, cutting back to medieval times, wearing homespun, most amenti…

The funny thing is that it isn't more friendly because efficiency produces big gains - look at just how much more land is required for organic farming vs conventional practices - let alone lower tech subsistence farming which amounts to 'slash and burn and then move on when the soil has depleted', heck even cooking fires produce far worse air pollution than propane stoves.

Local and small scale may 'feel cozy' but they aren't efficient - they were abandoned for a reason.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#162

Post by Razengan »

Zanni wrote: post #156
Razengan wrote: post #155

In all these comments re: rural versus urban versus megacities, nobody seems to have brought up arcologies (as per the sci-fi'ish concept, not half-baked experimental villages like Arcosanti): A city contained within a single megastructure, or a small cluster of megastructures, with large areas of natural/semi-natural, green, forested lands around them. Manufacturing and energy generation for all the needs of their r…

If you drop the self-sufficiency requirement, then cruise-ships--which are now the size of small cities--fit the bill.

Without self-sufficiency it won't fix the problem that they will still be exacting a toll (in pollution, destruction of habitat for other species) on places that they don't physically occupy.

Completely self-sufficient megastructures may still pollute their immediate surroundings, but that may be easier to contain and manage.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#163

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #140
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. As someone from Romania who works remotely, I moved from the big city to a village about 50 km away, seeking a quieter life. Even there fiber had been run out. It only took a few days for the ISP to show up and run some fiber from the pole to my home, and then I was enjoying speeds as fast as I had previously had in the heart of the city. Romanians are lucky that this country saw an early broadband boom in t…

Your situation is still rare in Romania. Also consider how far are you from the closest hospital (if you are far from Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi or Timisoara you are too far), a decent school for your kids, a decent place to go out (not the village pub where alcoholics waste their lives) and so on. One can live like a monk, but not raise a family in a small village or even a city like Petrosani (very nice area, but zero a…

> a decent place to go out (not the village pub where alcoholics waste their lives)

If you are in your early 20s and going out every night, then a village might suck. But I’m older now, and for the one or two times a week I meet friends, I just cycle down to the train station, put my bike on the train, and in an hour or so I’m in the city.

Even when I just want a coffee for myself, there is a small town nearby with two nice cafes. It’s not all alcoholics outside the big city.

> a decent school for your kids ... but not raise a family in a small village

Are you religious or something? The vast majority of my social circle either does not want children, or wants 1 child much later in life. So, no reason that such people who prefer a quiet life cannot spend at least a few years in the countryside now.

> There are not so many jobs where you can work from home, especially exclusive from home.

Romania might be the remote-working capital of Europe now. Coworking spaces are popping up like mushrooms after rain. Yes, not everyone can work remotely, but anyone who has a university education and who uses English a lot ought to at least consider becoming a freelancer, or applying at a Western European company that will let them work from home in RO.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#164

Post by somberi »

libertine wrote: post #61
rdl wrote: post #9

I'm sure there are plenty of people who can work remotely who would love to live in a place like this, if it were either turnkey or at least if there were some collective action organization. Makes even more sense in Portugal, though -- you could live in a place for 182 days/yr, after putting 350k euros investment into it, with a grant of portugese citizenship. I'm sure there are similar villages/properties in rural…

The great thing about Portugal is that it's a rather small country, so even if you live in the interior, you can quickly get to a large city, or even the coast. As a portuguese I can tell you that Portugal is an amazing place to live if you have an above the average income.

May I ask what you would consider as above-average income.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#165

Post by tinus_hn »

paganel wrote: post #144
village-idiot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that in jest, but that is actually how this process works. Remember when touchID came out and many people mockingly thanked Apple for not having to enter 4-6 digits? Now how many people get pissed off when their wet thumb doesn’t read right and they have to enter their pin? People get used to new luxuries.

I’m wondering if I’m not the only person who’s not locking his smart-phone. At the same time I’m also making sure to never leave it out of sight and I have no Internet banking. I also have my WiFi network at home open, have had it for more than 10 years now.

That’s going to be fun when someone decides to use your connection to make a bomb thread, or worse, upload copyrighted content.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#166

Post by paganel »

tinus_hn wrote: post #165
paganel wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m wondering if I’m not the only person who’s not locking his smart-phone. At the same time I’m also making sure to never leave it out of sight and I have no Internet banking. I also have my WiFi network at home open, have had it for more than 10 years now.

That’s going to be fun when someone decides to use your connection to make a bomb thread, or worse, upload copyrighted content.

We don’t have that many bomb-threats in the country I live in and fortunately the big media companies haven’t yet got the local authorities by the balls when it comes to copyright infringement. Agreed, had I lived in a country like Germany I might have done differently.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#167

Post by tonyedgecombe »

mmjaa wrote: post #111
volkl48 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that is false. A person living in a big city uses drastically less resources and energy than a rural person does. Less/no driving, smaller more energy efficient dwellings (apartment blocks = way more efficient heating/cooling), vastly less infrastructure per capita , etc.

Nonsense. Factor in all the oil that was used to build the resources the city dweller depends on, and to maintain those resources. Factor in the sheer energy waste of cities. An honest appraisal cannot lead to the conclusion that cities are good for us, energy-wise.

Actually I think you could both be right. Like for like cities are more efficient but I recently saw a statistic that said 50% of us live in cities but cities consume 70% of our resources. Consumption clearly has as much to do with wealth as where you live.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#168

Post by badpun »

mmjaa wrote: post #111
volkl48 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that is false. A person living in a big city uses drastically less resources and energy than a rural person does. Less/no driving, smaller more energy efficient dwellings (apartment blocks = way more efficient heating/cooling), vastly less infrastructure per capita , etc.

Nonsense. Factor in all the oil that was used to build the resources the city dweller depends on, and to maintain those resources. Factor in the sheer energy waste of cities. An honest appraisal cannot lead to the conclusion that cities are good for us, energy-wise.

> Factor in all the oil that was used to build the resources the city dweller depends on, and to maintain those resources. Factor in the sheer energy waste of cities.

You need to be more specific, what specific resources are you talking about? All the resources that city dwellers depends on are also required in the villages (if we want to maintain the same standard of living), but there you usually need more of them per capita.

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#169

Post by [deleted] »

rorykoehler wrote: post #42

Am I the only one who sees depopulation of rural areas as a good thing? It's an opportunity to rewild large parts of the continent. We don't need humans dominating every last square metre of the globe. That's part of what is causing most of our problems in the first place.

[deleted]

Re: Ghost Villages for Sale in Spain

#170

Post by Ntrails »

paganel wrote: post #144
village-idiot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that in jest, but that is actually how this process works. Remember when touchID came out and many people mockingly thanked Apple for not having to enter 4-6 digits? Now how many people get pissed off when their wet thumb doesn’t read right and they have to enter their pin? People get used to new luxuries.

I’m wondering if I’m not the only person who’s not locking his smart-phone. At the same time I’m also making sure to never leave it out of sight and I have no Internet banking. I also have my WiFi network at home open, have had it for more than 10 years now.

I never used to lock my phone, but with fingerprint unlock the effort went away and so left it on.
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