Thanks for your concern for my brother grmpy! He’s going to be retiring to Vietnam soon, so it’s not too worry for our family- but there’s so many others, it’s sad and no real plan in place.
Not to derail the conversation but it’s not just the rich who can be Vagabonds. My fiancé and I just flew to India and we are starting our new life as permanent travelers. Life is expensive in the states but we’re looking at a room for a month and a half in south India a couple miles from the beach that only cost $120/month and it’s supposed to be pretty nice (except it’s in a road so will be loud). We hire a cook and I teach a few Chi jfyoga classes a week and we could get by on about $1000/mo.
The advantage is we don’t want kids, have very portable careers and own almost nothing (I brought two backpacks which are carry on and personal item size and have a few things in the corner of my fiancé’s moms closet but own nothing). If you’re cool with that, you really can get off the grid and travel Central America, Asia and pretty much any cheap country and get by on next to nothing. Even travel within the region becomes much cheaper once you’re in the region.
Not saying that it’s a lifestyle for everyone, nor that the power structure doesn’t heavily favor the wealthy, just saying there a ways to slip between the cracks without having to do anything illegal. Vagabonds still live.
Thank you. Your case is more or less what I meant by “vagabonds” – people with little to tie them down. I wish I had that independent of a life, but I have baggage – everything from a 5K CD collection to doctors to friends – that will never allow me that kind of flexibility. I envy you.
This clearly isn’t the lifestyle that’s the norm for the overwhelming majority in the states. and I don’t think very many could pull it off. Good luck to you, green.
As more jobs become portable more and more people are doing it though. You’d be surprised hire many people I meet “off the grid” who do their work in cafes.
Tying it more to this thread, I’d say one of the problems with Capitalism is that it encourages people to spend vast quantities of money on unnecessary items that then tie them to the capitalistic lifestyle and thusly miss out on left field opportunities that are actually all around us.
In Europe a lot of people circumvent expensive health care by going to cheaper countries for optometry and important but non-life threatening medical work. I think societies where capitalism has been around longer blinds us to these alternate methods. We only see the possibilities that the shop sells us.
I’m not against capitalism but do think that the stranglehold it has on our minds and bodies is way too extreme. I think Bernie would be a great step in the right direction. He’s not a socialist in a classic sense but he’s someone who doesn’t trust big business and doesn’t buy into the predominant works view. I’m incredibly encouraged that he’s doing so well in the polls.
Sorry, man I missed this the first time, I give the economy to Obama just because the upward trend hasn’t decreased under Trump (I still don’t think the economy is particularly “good” though.). The graph line was/is headed that way any way. And for what? 2/12 years? Trump didn’t institute any kind of economic policy so it can only be Obama’s economy. I do think when Trump’s tariffs bullshit really takes effect you are going to see a magnificent down spike, though and that’s when you’ll know it’s Trump’s economy.