<story><title>Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?</title><url>https://reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/17mvukd/is_there_anywhere_in_the_world_someone_can_just/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>safety1st</author><text>I mean have you not read Walden? This idea of being more self-reliant and independent is popular with a lot of people, it&amp;#x27;s a central precept of certain schools of philosophy and ethics as well. No, they weren&amp;#x27;t all miserable hermits who died young. If you don&amp;#x27;t like that lifestyle it&amp;#x27;s fine, but you don&amp;#x27;t need to pee in everyone else&amp;#x27;s Wheaties.</text></item><item><author>btbuildem</author><text>OP&amp;#x27;s premise of &amp;quot;living for free&amp;quot; seems to mean &amp;quot;not pay taxes&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;use what resources are available&amp;quot;. I wonder what the motivation is here, I&amp;#x27;ve heard this sentiment expressed many times. It usually seems to imply &amp;quot;away from others&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Looking back at the millennia of human history, we&amp;#x27;ve always formed communities, always assumed more-or-less specialized roles, and always used some form of debt to manage the social fabric and facilitate the exchange of goods and services.&lt;p&gt;The loners, the hermits, the &amp;quot;self-sufficient&amp;quot; seem to be outliers, doomed for a hard, brief life. Personally, I&amp;#x27;d much prefer to live in society, and contribute part of my efforts towards sustaining it. That, to me, is living &amp;quot;for free&amp;quot; -- it&amp;#x27;s so much more of a free ride than trying to manually hack it and provide sustained food and shelter for decades.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>velcrovan</author><text>I mean, have you not heard about how during the Walden years Thoreau was fully dependent on and subsidized by others?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newyorker.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;pond-scum&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newyorker.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;pond-scum&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Walden bros are like house cats: fully reliant on a system of support they neither acknowledge nor understand.</text></comment>
<story><title>Is there anywhere in the world someone can just live for free?</title><url>https://reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/17mvukd/is_there_anywhere_in_the_world_someone_can_just/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>safety1st</author><text>I mean have you not read Walden? This idea of being more self-reliant and independent is popular with a lot of people, it&amp;#x27;s a central precept of certain schools of philosophy and ethics as well. No, they weren&amp;#x27;t all miserable hermits who died young. If you don&amp;#x27;t like that lifestyle it&amp;#x27;s fine, but you don&amp;#x27;t need to pee in everyone else&amp;#x27;s Wheaties.</text></item><item><author>btbuildem</author><text>OP&amp;#x27;s premise of &amp;quot;living for free&amp;quot; seems to mean &amp;quot;not pay taxes&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;use what resources are available&amp;quot;. I wonder what the motivation is here, I&amp;#x27;ve heard this sentiment expressed many times. It usually seems to imply &amp;quot;away from others&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Looking back at the millennia of human history, we&amp;#x27;ve always formed communities, always assumed more-or-less specialized roles, and always used some form of debt to manage the social fabric and facilitate the exchange of goods and services.&lt;p&gt;The loners, the hermits, the &amp;quot;self-sufficient&amp;quot; seem to be outliers, doomed for a hard, brief life. Personally, I&amp;#x27;d much prefer to live in society, and contribute part of my efforts towards sustaining it. That, to me, is living &amp;quot;for free&amp;quot; -- it&amp;#x27;s so much more of a free ride than trying to manually hack it and provide sustained food and shelter for decades.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PaulDavisThe1st</author><text>Hmm, Walden? You mean the book by the author who took his laundry back to his mother once a month (or thereabouts)?&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t get me wrong - loved the book, love the concept. The distance between both and reality is a little larger than is immediately obvious, however.</text></comment>