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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?

#351

Post by Fricken »

supertofu wrote: post #329
Fricken wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went on a bike tour this summer and for a week was living the life of a wandering folk. I experienced no hostility. People were all very friendly and helpful the whole way. Like, super friendly and super helpful, offering me meals and places to sleep. I had a tire blowout which stranded me at a small town gas station for a few hours, and about a dozen dudes came up over that time and offering me use of their tools…

I'm very glad that you experienced generosity! But I don't think your experience is the norm. One week of wandering is not exactly a lifetime. I also can't help but assume from your plucky, overconfident dissent that is based on a very short duration of experience that you are a white man.

I am a white guy, but I don't get treated the same travelling through those areas in a car.

I'm pretty green to bicycle touring, but my anecdote reflects accounts I commonly read from other bicycle tourists, many who spend months and in some cases years on the go, all over the world.

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

#352

Post by pixl97 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #343
survirtual wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are countless models available beyond this black and white, boxed thinking. The dichotomy presented between capitalism as the byproduct of division of labor and the inevitability of free-riding in its absence paints a rather stark picture. However, this view presumes a rigidity in human motivation and socio-economic structures that simply does not account for the complex tapestry of human innovation. Life is no…

Did... an AI write this?

Is it incorrect? Is this the future we are bound to? Anytime someone writes beyond the 5th grade level we accuse the writer of being artificial?

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

#353

Post by Podgajski »

nradov wrote: post #341
Podgajski wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some great risk I’m going to explain this to you. One of my sensitivities is to the new 5G towers they’ve been putting up everywhere. Yeah I have EHS. Some places like Wichita with the huge amount of mid band. 5G is just not tolerable for me. I’ve always had a problem with EMF. I used to work at Cisco and that’s when I had my first mental breakdown in a long time. It was a 1999 right when they started installing W…

EMF sensitivity is not a real thing, and there is nothing special about 5G radiation. What you actually need is psychological or psychiatric treatment.

It is real, for me. I’m not going to debate you on this topic because I’ve tested it every way I can to rule out placebo.

I am not woo woo crank and I approached this with skepticism and rigor. But if you want to investigate, more, look at voltage gated calcium ion channels like the l type calcium channels and TRPV1 channels.

In my opinion, people who have EHS will have changes in these genes that make them more susceptible to the electromagnetic waves causing calcium influx into the nerve cells. it just happens to be a coincidence that these same genetics will cause mood disorders. That is because mood disorders are environmental diseases.

And I have been in psychological and psychiatric treatment for over 30 years. I think I have not hashed this through with my therapist and doctors is just an assumption on your part.

I will say you need to see a therapist. If you think there’s any certainty that EHS does not exist, because that’s as bold as me, saying that it does exist.

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

#354

Post by Podgajski »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #322
Podgajski wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had a simple clean studio I would be fine. I am not asking for much, just clean and stable. But even a mess of a studio costs $800 a month which I can’t afford. even if I had a place to park that was stable I wouldn’t mind either. Just something close to a town with food and place to shower, etc.

Why don't you find a appropriate commune here https://www.ic.org/ and live on it with a small number of other people.

Yes, I’ve tried that. Many of them are overly religious or want you to be a vegan or vegetarian or need to be this or that or something special. Or they don’t want people with a mental illness and have no money. Thanks though.

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

#355

Post by jslabovitz »

HPsquared wrote: post #19
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…

You could probably set up a business of "economical retreats"... Live in the old fashion for a week or so. Very low costs to the business owner, and an interesting experience for the patrons. Call it "the simple life". You'd need to arrange things for them to do as well. Edit: perhaps not possible, as most people would lack the skills to e.g. wash clothes or cook manually. Maybe it could have instructors and classes…

For four years, I ran something similar to this: an artist residency, in rural Appalachia. I charged a low fee to folks who came, and kept the experience fairly simple and self-catered.

However, it really wasn't sustainable. People who came invariably expected more — whether more infrastructure or more community or more subsidies/scholarships or more politics — and genuinely 'simple' folks were very rare.

The fees I charged barely covered utility/transportation costs, and were never enough to cover property taxes, much less paying me even a minimal salary. I could have raised fees, but that would have raised expectations and assumptions, too.

Furthermore, all my attempts to obtain professional help were a complete failure — whether getting a CPA/bookeeper (to manage the taxes I was required by the state to collect), an attorney (for making it a legal nonprofit to avoid those taxes), or an insurance broker (for liability insurance because people will sue you). Providers around here looked at my project and just said, 'Meh, I don't understand it. I'm not interested,' or quoted fuck-you prices, like $10K/year for liability! Providers closer to the city might have helped, but for even higher fees.

Sure, I could have — and did — do without all those things. But one realizes, the further one is off that branch, the more unstable things become.

Our society is built for either individual/family scale, or corporate scale. It's very, very difficult to find a place in between that will work for more than a short time. Try to run a project in the US that is not a business but not just an individual hobby: you'll find few options, outside of established structures like churches. And even those have much bigger budgets and organizations than you might think.

Nuthin's easy, son.

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

#356

Post by pixl97 »

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.

What is interesting in these threads is that we as humans cannot seem to even imagine a post work society, much less how we'd ever accomplish one.

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

#357

Post by pixl97 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #270
Tade0 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only by means of statistics - they had so many children that it compensated for high mortality rates. As recently as in the early 20th century the fertility rate required to sustain population numbers in Germany was over 2.5 - and that was well into the industrial era. Before such obvious to us things like antibiotics or doctors washing hands it was likely much higher.

So you are saying it works? You just have to have 2.5 children.

Everything works as long as you discount survivorship bias.

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

#358

Post by Tade0 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #270
Tade0 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only by means of statistics - they had so many children that it compensated for high mortality rates. As recently as in the early 20th century the fertility rate required to sustain population numbers in Germany was over 2.5 - and that was well into the industrial era. Before such obvious to us things like antibiotics or doctors washing hands it was likely much higher.

So you are saying it works? You just have to have 2.5 children.

The species can survive this way. Individuals - not really.

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

#359

Post by pixl97 »

coolThingsFirst wrote: post #45
Podgajski wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a very low material quantity of life, but my spiritual quality of life is pretty good even as I live homeless with a disability in a minivan in the United States. Americans are way too materialistic and there needs to be a reckoning of this if anything is going to change. Even people I meet that live in other minivans or RVs want to have every single creature comfort they had when they were living in a house.…

What's the hardest thing about your life?

The hardest thing about his live is ignoring the massive production chain required to make all the things that make his life far better than one someone would have had a couple of centuries ago.

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

#360

Post by ysavir »

Podgajski wrote: post #335
ysavir wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's missing?

Any sort of a kitchen. There’s no stove or oven. Just a microwave. This is one thing I’ve learned to look for in photos of online apartments. We’re looking at places at this price level.

That's not unusual for small studios. Oftentimes people get an electric countertop stove and/or toaster oven.

I know that's not ideal, but how does that compromise compare to living in a van? Do you prefer to live without any facilities whatsoever to hold out for a proper stove and oven?

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