Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 493 posts

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

#281

Post by ghaff »

christophilus wrote: post #185
beepbooptheory wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does that follow though? Why not just say: in the absence of labor, people would still like to make and do nice things for people to consume. Like, you know, enjoying life and sharing with others. A "job" is not a spontaneous effect of a desire, its not a natural thing, but simply a formalization step in capitalism for the sake of exchanging labor for pay. "Post-work" generally doesn't mean "nobody can work anymo…

Every economic system we’ve ever observed had jobs. Communism, socialism, feudalism, tribalism… Human civilization has and probably will always have roles which are essentially responsibilities for ensuring some good or service is consistently available to the community. That’s a job in my book, regardless of the economic system.

Doesn't even need to be a formal economic system. I can pretty much guarantee that a random paleolithic tribe had some people who were better hunters, people who gathered edibles, leaders, etc.

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

#282

Post by huytersd »

pauldenton wrote: post #275
huytersd wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single individuals didn’t migrate, entire communities did.

Depends on the time period. Single individuals crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower. Single individuals helped colonize the new world.

Yes, I tend to call 1000 single individuals traveling together a community or group.

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

#283

Post by pj_mukh »

btbuildem wrote: post #157

OP's premise of "living for free" seems to mean "not pay taxes" and "use what resources are available". I wonder what the motivation is here, I've heard this sentiment expressed many times. It usually seems to imply "away from others". Looking back at the millennia of human history, we've always formed communities, always assumed more-or-less specialized roles, and always used some form of debt to manage the social f…

Maybe I'm being overly-simplistic, but what a lot of these folks are actually aiming for is closest approximated to being "Trust fund kids".

Digging even deeper based on some conversations I've had with friends, a lot of these folks are running away from a string of bad bosses or toxic management.

Every means of making a living requires putting up with a bad boss, so its not surprising they start looking for alternative means of making a living/disconnecting etc. COVID exacerbated this.

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

#284

Post by qup »

caditinpiscinam wrote: post #120
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…

> There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life; the vast majority of humans forever have wanted this. By itself I think that this is a positive attribute. The problem comes when people believe that they deserve to live more comfortable lives than others, which seems true of most Americans.

or a comfortable life subsidized by the work of someone else

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

#285

Post by DoubleDerper »

btbuildem wrote: post #157

OP's premise of "living for free" seems to mean "not pay taxes" and "use what resources are available". I wonder what the motivation is here, I've heard this sentiment expressed many times. It usually seems to imply "away from others". Looking back at the millennia of human history, we've always formed communities, always assumed more-or-less specialized roles, and always used some form of debt to manage the social f…

> and always used some form of debt to manage the social fabric and facilitate the exchange of goods and services.

This is the capitalistic narrative since the agricultural revolution, thousands of years ago, but it's not true of most of human history.

During pre-agriculture we coexisted with many species, all living off the fat of the land, resources were plentiful for hundreds of thousands of years.

A delightful counterpoint and quick read is the book "Ishmael."

https://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Novel-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375...

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

#286

Post by qup »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #129
keiferski wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then make it a thousand dollars a month. $12,000 a year is still way below anything most people consider a normal modern income. Again; you’re missing the bigger point entirely and fixating on specific numbers that I threw out as a quick example.

Sure, and you are willing to forego the services of any healthcare professional? Because most people consider being able to go to the emergency room as “normal”. My point was to dispute this overly simplistic assertion: >but with the nature of marketing and social pressure, almost no one is willing to make that kind of sacrifice today.

poor people go to the emergency room and just never pay the bill. it barely even matters on your credit these days.

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

#287

Post by qup »

dorfsmay wrote: post #100
high_5 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a guy living quite close to 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3eJ1t13fk Still, he'll have to pay off the land he bought.

I haven't watched the video, but paying off implies owning a title to the land which means paying taxes on it.

I also didn't watch it, but I have forty acres and a home and all that, and my yearly taxes are like $300 (different state from the video).

I think that qualifies for "quite close to 0"

(I don't aim for zero, although I do live very cheaply compared to the US average)

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

#288

Post by high_5 »

dorfsmay wrote: post #100
high_5 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a guy living quite close to 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir3eJ1t13fk Still, he'll have to pay off the land he bought.

I haven't watched the video, but paying off implies owning a title to the land which means paying taxes on it.

Yeah, he does, that gets mentioned in the video.

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

#289

Post by swader999 »

For me the unrelenting desire is to not feel like I'm a slave. Increasing taxes, fees, licenses, subscriptions, inflation. Constant vigilance on the quality of items. The parasitic nature of every big successful corporation. So yeah, I can relate to these posts. I like people don't crave to be alone.
Post reply on HN