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Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

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Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#81

Post by vjk800 »

exDM69 wrote: post #49
pavlov wrote: post #7

If you’re a citizen or legal resident of a Nordic country, you’ll get paid basic subsistence when you have no other income. In Finland this is around 500 euros / month. There are lots of empty houses in the remote countryside in Finland (and I presume the same is true for parts of Sweden and Norway). You can probably rent something for next to nothing, or even make a deal with the owner to stay for free in exchange f…

Owning a property comes with property taxes. And will make you ineligible for a lot of the benefits. And speaking of said benefits, it's a part time job keeping up with the paperwork. And the Nordics are a cold place, you either need to own some forest or pay for firewood and/or electricity or heating oil. Forest property is quite expensive. There's no way you could live in a cheap house in the Nordic countryside for…

You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

Property taxes in remote locations are not very high. Neither are rents in dying villages. Living off the free 500 euros a month is certainly doable here in Finland, and, in fact, regrettably many people do it.

Keeping up with the paperwork, at least here in Finland, is also a very small amount of work. Like two hours once a month or something.

I think it's not an accident that we have quite a bit higher unemployment rate than the Anglosphere.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#82

Post by vjk800 »

danbruc wrote: post #9
pavlov wrote: post #7

If you’re a citizen or legal resident of a Nordic country, you’ll get paid basic subsistence when you have no other income. In Finland this is around 500 euros / month. There are lots of empty houses in the remote countryside in Finland (and I presume the same is true for parts of Sweden and Norway). You can probably rent something for next to nothing, or even make a deal with the owner to stay for free in exchange f…

It is also immoral. EDIT: As this is collecting downvotes quite quickly, would any of the downvoters care to explain their stance?

Only if you accept that the system itself is moral. If you think it's an oppressive power structure that violently conquered traditional, small scale communities and forced them to live under its thumb, I think there's nothing wrong with abusing the abuser.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#84

Post by keiferski »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #66
keiferski wrote: post #15

It's interesting how quality of life baselines have increased so much in the last century. If you wanted to have the QOL of someone that lived in the American West a hundred years ago, it could be done today for probably $100 a month all-inclusive of food, clothing, and shelter. But you'd be eating the same 5-10 things repeatedly, wearing the same clothes, have a few books for entertainment, minimal or no electronics…

> but with the nature of marketing and social pressure, almost no one is willing to make that kind of sacrifice today. Maybe people prefer having pressurized clean tap water and sewer systems due to something other than marketing and social pressure. I know the women in my life would definitely prefer it compared to my grandmothers who had to travel to get water from the well everyday.

I thought it was obvious that I was referring to consumer goods like clothing and food, not tap water and sewer systems.

But alas, if there is any opportunity to misinterpret a comment in the least obvious way possible, someone in the comments will be sure to do so.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#85

Post by Cthulhu_ »

vjk800 wrote: post #75

Is the goal to live without working or without being in the system? If it's the first, maybe living here, in Finland, in a small, cheap village and living off the unemployment benefits would work. There are plenty of people who have been unemployed their whole lives. I guess there's a very small amount of work filling all the benefit forms and subjecting yourself to whatever periodic checks the officials want to make…

This wouldn't work in the Netherlands (anymore); while we're known to have a good social security system, if you're filing for unemployment or the other kind of support, you're expected to put in the work and show that you're doing so by doing courses, making applications, etc. Failure to do so means your benefits are cut.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#86

Post by mdekkers »

clwg wrote: post #71
bilsbie wrote: post #69

I think it would be cool if we had a kind of non religious Amish type communities.

That's a really interesting concept. When I think about the Amish, I consider how their religion greatly influences their way of life. I wonder if removing the religious aspect and substituting it with a political ideology, or something else could yield similar outcomes.

Welcome to the Kibbutz

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#87

Post by keiferski »

eesmith wrote: post #72
keiferski wrote: post #15

It's interesting how quality of life baselines have increased so much in the last century. If you wanted to have the QOL of someone that lived in the American West a hundred years ago, it could be done today for probably $100 a month all-inclusive of food, clothing, and shelter. But you'd be eating the same 5-10 things repeatedly, wearing the same clothes, have a few books for entertainment, minimal or no electronics…

> the QOL of someone that lived in the American West a hundred years ago I don't think you have a good idea of what life was like in the 1920s, even in the American West. Here is what Cheyenne looked like in the 1910s - http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/cheyenne1900s.html . People had cars then - and horses. Train service started in 1867. The local library started in 1886 so you could get books for entertainment.…

The average person a hundred years ago obviously didn’t have YouTube, or the internet, or GPS phones, or a million other consumer goods we take for granted today as a baseline. That was my point. Whether some middle class people had a model T car or a library card is kind of missing the point I’m making entirely.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#88

Post by LeafItAlone »

vivekd wrote: post #67
keiferski wrote: post #15

It's interesting how quality of life baselines have increased so much in the last century. If you wanted to have the QOL of someone that lived in the American West a hundred years ago, it could be done today for probably $100 a month all-inclusive of food, clothing, and shelter. But you'd be eating the same 5-10 things repeatedly, wearing the same clothes, have a few books for entertainment, minimal or no electronics…

Cost of land fertilizer transportation animals etc have gone up to the point that I didn't think that life is possible for 100 a month Consider that If this was possible I could work at McDonald's for two years and then retire to that kind of life. Obviously that's not realistic

> Cost of land fertilizer transportation animals

My read of the parent’s comment is that you aren’t paying for land.

You don’t need store bought fertilizer. I had a garden for a few years and avoided manufactured fertilizer for most of it. At an industrial scale, sure, it is needed, but not at an individual garden level.

No transportation needed other than your own two feet or what you can build. It’s not like you need to go into work every day.

You don’t need to buy animals for food if you can hunt and trap.

I’m not suggesting I agree with the $100/month limit, but things on your list are considered luxuries to the plan. Remember, you’re shooting for “QOL of someone that lived in the American West a hundred years ago” which wasn’t all that great.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#89

Post by mdekkers »

Podgajski wrote: post #61
efitz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are way too materialistic and there needs to be a reckoning of this if anything is going to change. If this lifestyle works for you, then good for you. Try raising children that way. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life; the vast majority of humans forever have wanted this. In the USA we have a problem with cost of living, but at the end of the day the reason for this is almost alw…

> Try raising children that way. Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Just because it’s different from what you used to doesn’t mean it can’t be done. And it doesn’t mean the children will come out harmed in anyway. > In the USA we have a problem with cost of living, but at the end of the day the reason for this is almost always misguided government intervention. If there is no governm…

> Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years.

Come now, people also used to die from toothaches, and during those hundreds of thousands of years infant and child mortality was incredibly high, and education practically nonexistent.

These “we have done this since the beginning of time” arguments always make me chuckle, they are so incredibly simplistic.

Re: Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?

#90

Post by ysavir »

Podgajski wrote: post #54
coolThingsFirst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the hardest thing about your life?

Thanks! I would say the loneliness because of the stigma of both how I live, and my mental illness. Even when I am out on the BLM land with people with other campers the fact that I live in a minivan is looked down upon. And since I have to drive around so much to follow the weather It’s very hard to have long-term meaningful friendships. The other thing is lack of stable healthcare but I am slowly weaning myself off…

What do you consider to be the ideal solution?
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