

How to Live Well Without a Job and with (almost) no Money - smanek
http://www.f4.ca/text/possumliving.htm

======
redorb
I've always thought about dropping out of the system; I think it parallels
with the "I could rob this bank"thought that every man has. My favorite
articles are below <http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/2.htm> (simple
living)

<http://www.ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html> (dropping out)

<http://www.zenzibar.com/articles/worksucks.asp> (work sucks)

as far as where I'm at, I'm currently living in a studio barn apartment that
was built out for me for around $5k my rent is $50/mo plus electricity for the
whole barn ($100) I plan to live there for at least 5 years it is about 600
sqFt. I drive an old truck to my job that is paid for, and I try to save as
much as I can; when I see things going south I will build a dome on the farm
(150k) w/ 1 acre of land included and then move out there with expenses of
<$500 month and live for 10-20 years

~~~
hugh
What will you do after 10-20 years in a dome?

~~~
mattmaroon
Be single, that's for sure.

~~~
redorb
(of course I haven't given up on the opposite sex) I'm waiting on a soul mate
(aren't we all) she of course would have to have the same values I try for
-money + integrity + honesty + transparency. Finding that is probably like
hitting the lottery but better

~~~
mattmaroon
If a woman were willing to live in a room in a barn, or a farmed dome, you
probably wouldn't want her. Read some evolutionary psychology books if you're
curious as to why that is. Money is, to women, a proxy for other things.

~~~
bokonist
Don't women tend to go for the starving artist? But I think your more general
point is sound. If you forsake money, you will need to find another signal of
fitness, like power or being a great dancer.

~~~
menloparkbum
In the bay area, standard evolutionary psychology doesn't apply. The millions
of dollars you make are negated by your bad hairdo and greenish-white LCD tan.
The best bet for finding a woman in the bay is to get tattoo sleeves and
become a popular bartender.

~~~
mattmaroon
From my experience its the other way around. Your bad hairdo and greenish-
white LCD tan are more than negated by the millions of dollars you make. That
certainly seemed to be the case when I went anywhere nice.

------
justindz
This has always been a topic of interest to me. The "System" (as much as/if
there is one) is designed to facilitate a certain objective. In our case,
economic growth and individual wealth. For brevity's sake, I'll skip the
digression about clustering, distributing and distributing unevenly.

So, if that systemic objective does not make _your_ life meaningful, what do
you do? The way of the world is towards this objective because it's the best
progress we've made so far towards meeting most people's basic human needs.
Escaping to a different country with human rights and a different objective is
not very feasible.

Changing the system isn't a good option because for most people the system is
fine. There are also tons of people for whom it's not fine, but they don't
notice and it's not necessarily our business to try to wake them up unless
they ask.

So I think the best option is, like the author is suggesting, to opt out as
best you can. Find what makes you happy and base your life around that, while
minimizing your conflict with the governing body (e.g. they pay property
taxes, rather than bury a bus full of guns and plan to resist--that would be
un-lazy and make them miserable).

Had I not gotten married (which I don't regret, btw), I would have continued
to work to fuel my desire to buy up a big plot of land that I don't have to
mow and building a minimal but fully livable tree house. Since I still find
that interesting, I'll keep designing and hacking and do it when the kids are
off to college and my wife's making enough money to pay for her shoe fetish.
Works for me.

~~~
briansmith
"Changing the system isn't a good option because for most people the system is
fine. There are also tons of people for whom it's not fine, but they don't
notice and it's not necessarily our business to try to wake them up unless
they ask."

I bet if you went and made friends with a few of those people, you wouldn't
feel that way.

------
okeumeni
One thing is always funny to me about people living out of the ‘system’: They
all forget that they still depend on the ‘system’.

Remember the dad working for short terms? She is working for neighbors for
little pay? They even buy fuel! lol how about electricity? They read books and
enjoy them.

Without the ‘system’ they will mot live the little revolution of living out of
the ‘system’.

~~~
michaelneale
I guess there comes a point where if there is no society - would you really
want to live? What is the point if you are the only person left in your "dome"
? I know some people that would be fine with that. I try to put as much
distance between them and myself. I am a social creature, and always will be.

------
ejs
This was written in 1978, although I find it a bit bizarre it would be
interesting to see where this girl is now since she would be about 30 years
older.

[edited to fix math mistake]

~~~
smanek
Apparently, you aren't the first to wonder:
[http://www.grannymillerblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/where-
are-y...](http://www.grannymillerblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/where-are-you-
dolly-freed.html)

But I think your arithmetic is a bit off. It says she was 19 in 1978, so that
would make her closer to 50 (49).

------
mynameishere
The thought of living off rabbits, when beans cost 50 cents a pound and are
easy to grow is just irrational. I'll stick to my _serious_ survivalist
tracts, thanks.

~~~
mwmanning
Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Rabbits are decent eating.

~~~
steveplace
The eyeballs are chock full of electrolytes and other micronutrients.

------
hugh
My favourite bit is the bit about the "coming age of shortages". This was
written in 1978.

I think I'll stick to doing stuff I enjoy and earning money for it, and then
spending that money on stuff I want.

~~~
mattmaroon
I think that all throughout history, man has expected the future to be far
worse than the present. And all throughout history, the future has turned out
to be better.

~~~
danohuiginn
" _all throughout history, the future has turned out to be better_ "

 _splutter_ Just...no. 1913? 1928? 14th-century Europe before the Black Death
turned up? Rome at its height?

Yes, things are pretty damn good right now (in Europe and North America, at
least). But history isn't a stately progress of life getting better - there
have been plenty of times when things have fallen apart.

As for expectations: there are always some waiting for the end-times with
barely-concealed glee. But equally there are usually some expecting
continuity, or gradual progress, or imagining cycles of historical recurrance.

~~~
mattmaroon
They've almost never been the cataclysms people have expected. Global cooling,
thermonuclear war, never materialized.

The ones that get us are never seen coming.

~~~
danohuiginn
There we agree totally.

~~~
justindz
Java?

Just kidding.

~~~
stcredzero
That's just a continuation of C/C++ anyhow.

------
babul
With the recent dramatic rise in food prices it doesn't sound so bad.

Here in UK rice is up 100%, cooking oil up 80%, flour up #40%, gas/electricity
up ~70% etc.

We are lucky though, at least there are no food riots like in south/south-east
asia at the moment.

------
edw519
"raising and slaughtering rabbits"

"catching and cooking fish and turtles"

"distilling your own moonshine"

Those late night coding sessions with macaroni & cheese and Milwaukee's Best
are looking better and better.

~~~
smanek
Milwaukee's Best? Really?

Buy some real beer - it isn't that much more expensive ;-)

~~~
edw519
Just a joke.

Would you rather drink Milwaukee's Best or home distilled moonshine?

<fumbles for Braille keyboard after a bad batch>

~~~
smanek
Home Distilled Moonshine for the win!

~~~
kajecounterhack
...or trade the rabbits you killed for miller instead ;)

~~~
pg
It would be a losing trade: <http://www.janusmuseum.org/panabasis/nov05.htm>

------
icey
Any how-to with the word "Rassle" in one of the chapter titles is an immediate
win in my book.

------
aswanson
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless>

~~~
not_will
Romanticized suicide (essentially) is one way out of the chains of 'modern'
life.

------
eru
I'd still have to work with that advise.

------
iamdave
Living with no job? I do it everyday.

------
jobeyonekenobi
Can you guess what 'Long Pork' is?

~~~
letmecomment
Google says it is 'human flesh'

