71–80 of 95 posts
Reminded me a little of Diogenes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope ). As Buddha said, suffering ends when our craving for material things ends. We don't have to be as extremely hardcore as the dude above, but following this philosophy in a limited pragmatic manner I think can be very liberating.
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Right! It's impossible to own land in America. You merely rent it from the government. But also, he uses the library for internet access. I wonder if he considers that "government dole."
Not entirely true, If you own patented land then I believe that is tax free forever; at least under current US law.
"A Land Patent is permanent and cannot be changed by the government after its issuance except in case of fraud, clerical error, or failure to pay taxes." (emphasis mine)
It very well could be the knowledge he has gained while living without money that will go toward educating masses of people out of work in our increasingly struggling economy moving forward. More people are losing jobs, homes, credit. Debt is increasing. How many people will know how to correctly identify edible cacti? I was thinking of my grandmother who survived the great depression. She has so much knowledge up th…
"I can go out into the woods and find an animal and kill it and skin it and cook it and eat it." What animals? If society collapses to that point, deer will be hunted to extinction in a matter of months, if not weeks, with smaller critters probably not getting hunted to extinction after that, but certainly to the point you won't find them readily anymore. There's still too many people with the skill to do that for yo…
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> "Countness numbers of the x-generation, y-generation, and even the baby boomers are going to die, simply because they do not know how to survive without money and a job and a grocery store." What? The only reason people would need to be able to hunt their own food in our society is if that society totally and utterly collapsed. And not just a collapse of the government... I'm talking mass-fatality pandemic, nuclear…
Not where I live. 5% of my state suffers from "food insecurity" which means they dont know where their next meal is coming from. I went on a field trip as a child through a state park and the game ranger warned us all, he said, "Don't poach deer kids. If you are hungry and your parents want to poach deer out of season, tell them to call me and we'll help." He wasn't saying this as a joke. Many families here do procur…
Yes, that's been happening for a long time in the US; as you said, 5% of your state (and many others) suffer from food insecurity. The rates are going up now, I'm sure.
'I asked my grandmother what her thoughts about the current financial situation, remember, she survived the great depression and she said, "I haven't seen anything like this."'
I would like very much to hear what your grandmother has to say in more detail.
Interesting article but it would have been even more interesting if the author had chosen to go more in depth about his daily activities and how Suelo copes with loneliness and boredom. IMO, these problems would be much more difficult than the physical hardships he faces.
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"Forgive me if I say this sounds like a Reddit comment" Forgive me if i say this makes you sound like an asshole - why do people on HN feel the need to belittle reddit in much the same way reddit users belittle digg users? I wonder where on the net an even more "intelligent" site's users are using "hacker news comment" as a derogatory term?
There are lots of places where people refer to the kinds of comments that show up on web message boards as, well, far from the epitome of rational, polite, interesting discussion. Maybe discussions on email mailing lists are the most common place where this happens. I think a lot of us here are users both of Reddit and Hacker News, and that experience is why we don't want Hacker News to turn into Reddit. It's not tha…
Frankly, the prevalent "gee, we are so much smarter than everyone else" attitude here is getting old.
Interesting article but it would have been even more interesting if the author had chosen to go more in depth about his daily activities and how Suelo copes with loneliness and boredom. IMO, these problems would be much more difficult than the physical hardships he faces.
Loneliness and boredom are not real issues. They're issues fabricated by the mind. With presence, they disappear. That's the whole point of his lifestyle: presence. The reason he dislikes money is because money indicates a distaste of the present and an obsession with the future. I recommend reading Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now for more information.
The fact that this guy keeps a blog and Eckhart Tolle expects an audience shows the value they place on social contact.
If everyone did this, he wouldn't have a thing to eat. I'm not knocking it, but it's something to think about. But that brings us to a more important point: Why does this guy have to forage to survive without money? Shouldn't he be able to save up, buy a few acres and grow his own resources? Nope, because of the absurdity known as the property tax (er, I mean "protection racket").
Property tax rate in Moab: 0.00% Effective tax on a $100,000 property in Moab: $0 Effective tax on a $500,000 property in Moab: $0 Effective tax on a few acres to grow his own resources: $0 Sound of another anti-government nutjob scuttling back to the drawing board in search of a new red herring: priceless http://propertytax.utah.gov/taxrates/taxarearates2008.pdf http://www.moabcity.org/business/index.cfm
> anti-government nutjob
Cavalier assumptions coupled with ad hominem FTW.
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Property tax rate in Moab: 0.00% Effective tax on a $100,000 property in Moab: $0 Effective tax on a $500,000 property in Moab: $0 Effective tax on a few acres to grow his own resources: $0 Sound of another anti-government nutjob scuttling back to the drawing board in search of a new red herring: priceless http://propertytax.utah.gov/taxrates/taxarearates2008.pdf http://www.moabcity.org/business/index.cfm
Yes, let's all pretend that there are no federal levies on property. > anti-government nutjob Cavalier assumptions coupled with ad hominem FTW.