Like other people here, I have my quibbles with the exact math. But the general premise is true: yes, you can live in rural poverty for cheap. The problem is the vibes. A hundred years ago, you would have a community, a place in society, and all of your family and friends nearby. In 2025, the only actual local job the author of the piece can come up with is at a gas station.
Top ten occupations, 1920: Farmers, farm laborers, clerks, salespeople, servants (bellboys, butlers, cooks), textile workers, machinists, carpenters, and teachers. All of those jobs, even the less respected ones, had infinitely more societal respect than the common jobs hiring in rural America today - such as stocking shelves at Walmart or working at a gas station. You could be a simple farm laborer and have a wife and kids and a place in society. Today, though, a young man working at a Walmart or a gas station will struggle to attract a stable partner or the respect of the world around him.
> a young man working at a Walmart or a gas station will struggle to attract a stable partner or the respect of the world around him.
From personal experience I can tell you confidently you are wrong.
The part you are missing is you only need to work 10-20 hours a week MAX. That means you have an enormous Amount of leisure time to do what you want with your life. Trust me when I say plenty of young women love the idea of not working a lot and instead having wilderness adventures.
Want to see it for yourself? Go spend a summer in the Yukon. If you love it, stay the winter. It’s nothing short of epic.
I've been the unemployed/underemployed guy having wilderness adventures with a beautiful girlfriend before. It's great (for a time.) But we're not talking about having wilderness adventures. We're talking about moving far away from anywhere you know to live in rural poverty in far upstate New York and work at a gas station in a depressed area, in a dilapidated building on land that virtually nobody wants, for good reason.
That specific solution is what the author of this piece proposed for the woes of the young people of America, not wilderness adventures or anything else.
Only on HN would I have to explain why this might affect your romantic life, but here goes. Statistically speaking, for men aged 25-54 in the US, being poor [1] nearly halves your chances of finding a partner. Chances which, I might add, are already not great, and certainly not improved by your lack of car, reliable heat, social connections et cetera.
Lest's say you are serious and it's only a lack of imagination [edit: or taste obviously but as the article author points out: it's only on you to choose what you like]:
- learn music instruments, perhaps join a local band or share samples on the net with enthusiasts
- draw, paint, sculpt, all of which has many options of techniques and cheap materials. As with music, the only limit is yourself and the the expense of your instrument but you don't need to use expensive techniques to enjoy
- make a year-round vegetable garden, thats' often time consuming and you won't need much terrain
- read tons of books, learn philosophie, math, history, whatever makes you find interesting. And in 2025 there's the option to read blogs for those that feels like it. watch movies, listen podcasts.
- cook whatever you eat, get creative and share the food with your neighbor or the receipt with the internet users
- do more sport. 1.5h/day practice of yoga, tai chi, swim or whatever will influence the rest of your day
- participate in local NGO or crate the one you want to, from homeless shelter to business and startups free guidance, animals caring and astronomy enthusiasts.
- to support your cheap live, learn to like the chores: hand wash your dishes and clothes. Sounds super boring, but how boring is an Amazon warehouse job ? I'd choose the dishwashing+podcast.
- use the bus or walk or bike to the wilderness, you got time. You don't need to get to the super-far-and-wild spot to enjoy the nature anyway.
- in the wilderness you can: walk, run, off-road exploration, climb trees (yes, that's still a hobby), listen and learn to recognize birds, mushrooms (beware), plants, insects, draw (that you can do anywhere), get aromates for cooking or leaves for tea, sleep in a tent, collect fossils and minerals. Become a local guide.
- get a cheap computer and play (not that) old games. Bonus if you live somewhere where internet is cheap, try some MMORPG (ok not too long to stay sane). Here in France unlimited 1Gb connection is 25€/month.
- learn to knit, wave, sew. Some people find those fun, and make extra money on local handmade shops.
You pretty much listed all the things that “simple life” people in the Yukon and Alaska get up to in their spare time - which is ample.
My first time up there I met a lady in her 40s who had just worked 12 weeks at a mining camp. She was bummed because that was the most she’d ever worked in her life. Had 10 acres, three kids, monster log home. Great life.
Dude at least 80% of these activities you listed cost a significant amount of money.
Musical instruments are the opposite of cheap, knitting materials and art materials (even the cheap stuff) costs money, you can’t legally form a NPO for free and you won’t be able to volunteer very well if you can only physically travel to the center of town on rural public transit or bicycle your way around a wide rural area.
The kind of biking and hiking at the amount of distance and time we are talking about isn’t free either, a decent bicycle that can do heavy mileage will cost money to buy and maintain. Plus all these sports will cause you to burn more calories necessitating more expenditures.
(Also have fun riding a bicycle everywhere on country roads with two narrow lanes and 55mph speed limits)
Cooking creatively for a group isn’t really a part of a $300 survival meal planning budget, and it’ll get pretty boring without some of the kitchen equipment that helps with that hobby.
In addition to that a lot of stuff that is cheap was not actually budgeted by the author of the article. In his example there’s no home internet or water budget, so even washing clothes or playing a game online isn’t in the budget.
You can get a OK used guitar for $300 that will last for years. That’s a few extra shifts at the gas station.
> Cooking creatively for a group isn’t really a part of a $300 survival meal planning budget, and it’ll get pretty boring without some of the kitchen equipment that helps with that hobby.
If you have your own garden, you can do a lot of creative cooking cheaply.
You don’t need a ton of kitchen equipment to enjoy cooking, and if you spend time searching for deals at thrift stores, yard sales, or on Facebook marketplace, you can get pretty much anything you need for almost nothing.
>no home internet or ware budget
Just add $1000 a year to the budget and make it $6k a year instead of 5. Adding in a few extra conveniences doesn’t materially change the author’s thesis.
Assuming your vehicle got around 25mpg you spent about $8000 CAD on gasoline over those 50,000km of driving. Where did that money come from?
How much did your legally required car insurance cost? The median rate seems to be around $200 a month from a quick google.
Just adding in the most modest vehicle completely destroys the author’s budget.
I believe your reality, but I don’t believe in the amount you are romanticizing it. If it is so amazing why are you not doing it anymore? Because you just told me there’s no need for internet out there because it’s so jaw-dropping amazing, you wouldn’t spend any time on the internet arguing with a loser like me?
> Assuming your vehicle got around 25mpg you spent about $8000 CAD on gasoline over those 50,000km of driving. Where did that money come from?
Vehicle got 32-35 mpg. 1.8ltr 4 cyl with selectable 4x4. I had a job.
> How much did your legally required car insurance cost? The median rate seems to be around $200 a month from a quick google.
$550 a year.
> Just adding in the most modest vehicle completely destroys the author’s budget.
Double the authors budget and you live a wicked life and don’t have to work much. I’m talking about living in the most jaw dropping landscapes many people see in their entire lives.
> I believe your reality, but I don’t believe in the amount you are romanticizing it. If it is so amazing why are you not doing it anymore?
I didn’t say it was perfect, but a heck of an adventure and totally doable.
I left to drive around Africa for three years. Bigger adventure.
> Because you just told me there’s no need for internet out there because it’s so jaw-dropping amazing, you wouldn’t spend any time on the internet arguing with a loser like me?
I’m not arguing, and you’re not a loser. I’m adding information from my own first hand experience, rather than assumptions and guesswork.
We're wired to yield to social pressures, it is what allowed us to create civilization. You're right, the energy spent to overcome it is well spent, but its not as trivial as you make it sound to be low-status and feel fulfilled.
Status is relative to who's doing the judging.. and everyone views things differently. I'd argue you don't have much of a choice whether you're low or high status in some people's eyes. Whether you feel it regularly heavily depends on who you surround yourself with
Your career = your social status is a very American point of view
Eat meat and vegans will look down on you
Ride a bike for transport in America and you're poor, do it in Europe and it's normal
Nomads will judge you on your experiences and travel, not your career. Wealthy CEO thats invested everything in their work but never left their home country? Low status
Go out on your own and take a risk of starting a business in Asia and people will be confused why you'd do that vs the safe path
Invest a tonne of energy into making money and anti-consumerist folk will laugh
Skinny? Better bulk up lest the bodybuilders see you as low status.. but wait, if you bulk up people will judge you for being vain. Shit
The status game isn't winnable. Best thing you can do is surround yourself with people of similar values
Letting go of social pressures, “status” and not worrying about what other people think of me was the single biggest quality-of-life improvement I ever made.
"Surround yourself with people of similar values"... so in other words, you mean find a group where you're of similar status. We're not in disagreement.
I used to be a guy that genuinely didn't care about what others thought. I did my own thing. As they say: those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter. That worked surprisingly well for quite a while. And then I slowly realized the benefits of society. It's nice to be a part of this big human experiment of ours. It's nice to have respect. And the thing is, it doesn't have to cost you that much. You don't have to go full-conformist. If you do a few basic things that are fairly low-effort you get a good bit of leeway in the eyes of the world. I'm still a pretty weird guy; just one that wears a squid on his head less often. Soul still intact.
Coming back to the article topic, often times society's judgment saves people from making stupid decisions. For example, in non-HN circles, "I am going to go move far away from anyone I know to live in a dilapidated building in one of the most depressed towns in the Northeast and work at a gas station" would garner enough judgment to stop that person in their tracks. If you've ever been to a town like this, you realize that is a good thing! Statistically, they've just been saved from ODing on fentanyl! Same thing for all kinds of socially undesirable behaviors. If you think people do crazy shit now, imagine what they'd do without a society around them.
> would garner enough judgment to stop that person in their tracks
I don't agree the judgement itself should be the factor that stops them. Having that as an overly strong measuring stick is incredibly limiting. It's an indicator of something, sure.. but you should look for actual reasons and where it's coming from
If you ask "everyone seems to think this is a terrible idea.. why?". Well in the 'dilapidated building in a depressed town' case you'd pretty quickly find 100 reasons not to do it, as you pointed out. In a lot of other situations though there are none. Everyone is just following everyone else and no-ones truly considered the alternatives on their own merit
I'm with you that there's a good balance. I don't see a reason in being actively non-conformist or anything. There's an innate drawback to not conforming.. it makes you a little weird and un-relatable. Just need to make sure the benefits make up for it
Yes, it seems the only thing the world around me respects is conspicuous consumption. It's better for your own wellbeing if you can avoid indulging that.
I don't think the OP was suggesting it would be a good life if by "good" you mean a life of relative comfort. I think his claim was much more modest. The point is that at that time a farm laborer was valued by the local community.
Farm laborers were probably at the bottom of the social ladder for working rural people. They were usually fully dependent on the owner of the farm that they worked on. Think of the cowboys in the bunkhouse in "Yellowstone" except way worse.
That’s exactly right. Especially during the time my great grandparents were young—the Great Depression. A farm laborer certainly wasn’t a respected member of society. Many of them became hobos traveling from town to town looking for any work they could find.
I think you’ll meet most of the community and could gain some standing working at the town gas station actually, especially if you try to be even a little bit friendly with the locals.
It’s very easy for someone hard working to move up a few ranks at Walmart. Spend a little of that extra money on clothes, and a $29k house. Then a little of your spare time on grooming, and maybe a little working out, and you won’t struggle attract a stable partner.
Top ten occupations, 1920: Farmers, farm laborers, clerks, salespeople, servants (bellboys, butlers, cooks), textile workers, machinists, carpenters, and teachers. All of those jobs, even the less respected ones, had infinitely more societal respect than the common jobs hiring in rural America today - such as stocking shelves at Walmart or working at a gas station. You could be a simple farm laborer and have a wife and kids and a place in society. Today, though, a young man working at a Walmart or a gas station will struggle to attract a stable partner or the respect of the world around him.