Rowan

And of course you are right and Ekdog as well. But the whole lot hinges on the fact that whatever lifestyle your choose, there are costs -- financial and intangible -- associated with it.

Even a low-rent flat has to be paid for on way or the other. But if you live in a low-rent flat, but your job is 50 miles away in an area where rents are much higher, then there are some significant complications that start to emerge in logistics and your personal choices.

And even in an urban environment, living off the grid is not cheap. The installation of a proper solar panel set-up with the required storage batteries costs a lot. The tanks to store rainwater aren't cheap, and then you have to find space to put them.

Most people associate "simple living" as being country based. And indeed, living in a small town, with a secure job, in a decent, relatively low-rent home, and with easy bikeable or walkable access to work and facilities is something that I do miss. But the reality was that employment that would sustain us simply wasn't available in the region, and we had to move.

The closest I have seen in real life to sustainable urban living was my ex-father-in-law, an immigrant from Slovenia who bought a quarter acre block of land, built his house with his own hands, and cultivated the backyard with magnificent vegetable plots and a small fruit orchard. His Australian wife preserved a lot of that produce. But they still had to buy a lot of other stuff and he had to work to pay for it, along with the property taxes.

Then we get on to the "commune" living approach, and we have seen that at first-hand, and discussed it with people who have lived in it. And just like every other human interaction, the greatest barriers to success were internal and often petty politics. Needless to say, our friends moved on after several years because they grew tired of it all.