I wanted to make a separate non-CW’d post to go off on a tangent and address the question: “why isn’t moving to a rural area for the lower cost of living a good solution for most people?” because if you’ve always lived in a city, a lot of this might not be obvious. This post is America coded (I live in Europe but I grew up in the rural US)
— First, you’re clearly presuming that the person has some kind of internet job (this is the case for the post this is spinning off from, the job in question is website programmer) because you simply cannot get most kinds of jobs in rural areas, especially as a newly arrived outsider.
— You’re then also presuming this rural area has high speed reliable internet access. It might, but this is a very shaky maybe. Business class internet is out of the question.
— Can you drive a car, for at least an hour? If not, for any reason (medical, emotional, legal) then you’re fucked without an extensive local support network. You will literally die.
— Can you shovel a nontrivial amount of snow? The city isn’t coming to save you. Heart attacks while shoveling snow are a major cause of death in rural areas.
— Do you have any medical issues that might lead to needing to call 911? Would it be a real fuckin’ problem if the ambulance took an hour to arrive, another hour to get to the hospital, and left you with a bill comparable to your annual salary?
— Do you have any medical issues that would kill you if the power went out for 10 days? My power went out for 10 days once. The water too, because that’s how rural well pumps work.
— Do you practice a religion and is it the same as the dominant religion where you’re going? If not, good luck building that support network
— Relatedly, if you’re not white,,, or you’re visibly queer,,, a lot of rural places just are not safe or welcoming
— Rural people have a sheet taped up on the kitchen wall with twenty phone numbers of random aunts, second cousins, former school classmates and church buddies. When something bad happens, calls rapidly circulate to organize aid between people who know and trust each other. Who the hell is gonna be on your list when you need it most, right after arriving?
I do know people who decided this is what they wanted to do, but (just like my decision to move to Europe, which has additional massive legal constraints) it is really godsdamn difficult if you’re not going back to where you grew up, and most city people would become miserable if they had to do it.