Yeah, makes me wonder how they break down between
- Born rich, never had to worry
- Worked hard and went full on for the mcmansion filled with accumulated junk, the SUV to haul junk around, the rented storage unit for more junk, and then one day said f’ it, why am I doing this? and are now wealthy enough to try on the role of opposing everything they’ve ever done
- Were pretty ascetic/frugal to start with; generally followed what society said to do but never spent or accumulated a lot because they just weren’t interested, and ended up rich enough to buy their freedom relatively young because of that
When you’re living on the streets, you make it a point to find safe places. Plural because you might not be able to get to one, might get locked out, it might get demolished, or become unsafe. So maybe not constant or reliable, but you have your places.
The hard part when you’re not rich is that everything is so much more expensive in time and effort (and usually money too). No car? You’re walking and/or scheduling everything around the limited public transit schedules. No home? You can’t store anything, so you get disposable stuff and have to rebuy it every time you need it. No money? You get the cheap stuff that wears out and have to rebuy it again. Trying to get a job? That’s a full day planned to get across town, get ready, do a 1-hour interview, and get back again. Have an appointment for assistance or medical? Another full day. Submitting job applications? Another full day. Cashing a check? Hours and a significant percentage of the check lost. Being broke can be a full-time job with an expensive lifestyle.
And since so many simple things are full-day quests, you’ll need to consider bathroom breaks. Downtown, they’re all locked ‘For paying customers only!’. In the residential neighborhoods, you risk becoming a registered sex offender if you have to pee in the bushes.
If you’re wealthy, all those problems fall away, so it’s much cheaper and easier to be poor if you’re rich. Not so much because of the stuff or the place, but because of all the friction that affects basic day-to-day activities. I’ve never seen the rich minimalists address those frictions.
