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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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The american dream was for the boomers who were promised pensions and social securitybin an era where the dollar had some semblance of value. We will never ever have those things. Even the boomers who get 800$ in SS are eaten alive with rent and forced into starving or living out of their cars in today's economy.
The american dream is called that because, you have to be asleep to believe it. We are much more awake as a society to the systems reality. Most of us are wagies that only exist in the eyes of the govt and corpos to pay taxes and generate profit until we get too old then put to pasture. The average life expectancy is 75, most of the boomers who retired at 65 maybe had 10-15 'golden years' they couldn't enjoy cause they were too old
You don't need the american dream. You don't need to work your whole life to pay off a 500,000$ mortgage on some shitty suburbanite hellhole with a terrible hoa. You don't need to go the common path most people do. I feel pity for anyone who got tricked into being an indentured slave to the banks/economy because they were a thoughtless monkey in their 20s who signed the dotted line on 50k in debt for a worthless degree and another 300k debt on a house because "family/kids". The only way to really be happy is to gibe the finger to the normal path and do something alternative.
Work hard, learn to save/invest in actual assets, don't squirrel away your money in a bank account forever since inflation will eat away its value if you just have it sit there. Have an e-fund of 3k to 6k, buy a van and convert it into a semi-living/camping space. Develop hobbies with actual skills, start your own small concession business. Don't buy a house buy land and develop the skills to build one yourself while living in a canvas tent. Plainly put, most people are too stupid, lazy, and unwilling to go without modern convinence. It takes a surprisingly little amount of money to live a comfortable lifestyle if you are intelligent, creative, driven, adaptive, and open to new experiences even if the outcome may be uncertain.
All that is true, but you forgot to add the part where the person living the life you propose is healthy, quite fit even. Not everyone, even fit young people, would do well living in a tent while they try to understand how to build a house. Let alone run a concessions stand from a van or something. That takes a massive physical toll and not even over the long run.
@recursiveparadox Thanks for your thoughts! I somewhat disagree that you need to be a fit and physically active person to do most things I mentioned. Definitely not everyone can build a cabin but if you want to live out of van and pitch tent and boondocks its certainly possible for the old and out of shape.
Here are the two things I point to. When doing my own research I came across these two particular yt channels that truly inspired me! cheaprvliving and Bushradical.
Cheaprvliving's host Bob wells is a now 70 year old and sort of out of shape man who still manages to live the van lifestyle. Just a few weeks he reviewed putting up a canvas tent and hooking it with solar powered air conditioner. In the Midwestern desert summer.
He also has constant interviews with many people usually on the older side who are again in no way healthy or fit and some partially disabled but still able to make the nomadic lifestyle work.
Its quite sad but a lot of older people are forced into homelessness as their rent eats them alive with meager SS. Young people also sometimes appear but not as much as you would expect.
As for the concession stand thing Maybe I'm not sure how physically able you need to be to tow and detach a small concession trailer. You make a good point there. Can always have an online store and ship depending on the thing selling maybe. Bob however did have a trailer attached to one of his rigs about five years ago and managed to get it around as a 65 yo man.
Cheaprvliving channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAj7O3LCDbkIR54hAn6Zz7A
Bushradical is a couple with years of experience building cabins that have made excellent videos on how to build the cheapest and easiest lodges possible. The way they show this particular build it seems possible. They truly present it in a way that I am convinced I could realistically do it with maybe a few novice beginner mistakes. As a single person.
Bushradical easy cabin blackthereof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOOXmfkXpkM&t=1
Everyone's lie circumstances and desires are so different so what may work for one person won't work for all others, but I think a lot of people have alternative options available to them that they either never think about or convince themselves they can't for X reasons. At the end of the day people are responsible for the life they choose to live and the resulting satisfaction they get living it or lackthereof
You make some good points, thanks for that. And unfortunately as you allude, this may become the fate of many in the not too distant future, whether they choose the lifestyle of their own volition ...or not.