Originally Posted by CommuterRun
I think the aboriginal peoples are the only ones to get it right. As far as having a society that can govern itself and does not destroy the evironment that it depends on to live. But subsistence living is a heck of a tough way to do things, and the planet is far to over-populated with people for this to currently be feasible.
Not to be pendantic, but just because it's interesting... actually traditional hunter/gathering lifestyles enjoyed far more leisure time than any other lifestyle system out there. Basically you "work" an hour or two a day and that's it, you're done. Hunter/gatherer societies also trend more egalitarian than others, so it's not a tough way to make a living at all, really. But that's from a completely dispassionate view, most people in the world, even if they had the option of living that way, probably wouldn't find it an attractive lifestyle. And of course that lifestyle hasn't been practical for a long time except in some rare cases. But I've always found that interesting. The common wisdom is some dude in the bush has to struggle each day to barely survive, when in fact they get more time to hang out than we do.
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