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Thread: would you live like it was the year 1800

  1. #1
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    would you live like it was the year 1800

    Seriously. Living off of the land.Growing and making everything that you need from the earth and nature. Find a little cave somewhere in the west mid west and spend the rest of time given . SWM companion 60 t0 65 able to climb mountains,swim rivers and lakes.

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    Senior Member freein05's Avatar
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    Take a bath once a week or a month. Watch children and people die of a sickness that today are totally preventable. Work 7 days a week in a coal mine. I volunteer at Calaveras Big Trees we talk about the 1850s when the big trees were discovered. It is amazing what people went through than. I would not want to live like that.

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    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    It was/is all the state of thought, geography and education. Some lived very well in comfortable surroundings with servants, ample food and conveniences.

    The 1800's were as turbulent as now but full of possibilities and adventure.
    The individual could/did find an outlet for imagination and desire to explore.

    I suspect that eventually future generations will live similarly to the 1800's as the cheap readily accessible fossil fuel supply becomes limited and cost-prohibitive but we will still have the strength of thought and imagination plus education/knowledge to find solutions as they did before. It will be a huge change to the Megamansions, SUV's, AC and central heat but many people did live quite well in the 1800's.

    We have been over-run with processed foods and materialistic junk mindset that holds us in our slave cubicle labour as 'paper pushers'. How many of us would actually do real manual work, I wonder?
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

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    Senior Member Bronxboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by razz View Post
    We have been over-run with processed foods and materialistic junk mindset that holds us in our slave cubicle labour as 'paper pushers'. How many of us would actually do real manual work, I wonder?
    The number of paper pushers in wealthy societies today is a historical anomaly. The physical jobs that office workers supported in the past have largely been exported or automated, but automation of office tasks hasn't caught up yet.

    Most office work doesn't add much value, and the ranks of cubicle-dwellers will be drastically reduced within a generation. Even as an engineer, I spend about half my time on tasks that would better be automated. Standardized data flows from manufacturers and vendors to users of what components make up a product and what supplies (with usage rates), parts (with expected lifetimes-enabling predictive maintenance), and accessories are needed to support the product would probably leave me out of a job.

    An engineer co-worker said recently that most of the office staff in our organization is one software change from unemployment. While I don't think it's quite that simple, the trend is clear. Most cubicle dwellers will follow the keypunch operators and file clerks they shared office space with a generation ago into obsolescence.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Bronxboy's Avatar
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    Red face

    Quote Originally Posted by setis View Post
    Seriously. Living off of the land.Growing and making everything that you need from the earth and nature. Find a little cave somewhere in the west mid west and spend the rest of time given . SWM companion 60 t0 65 able to climb mountains,swim rivers and lakes.
    Returning to the original poster's question, while I meet many of the qualifications, I am
    1. Married
    2. Brown-thumbed (see screen name)
    3. A bit too young
    4. Reasonably comfortable in an early 21st Century urbanized environment

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    I'm a "paper pusher", though I'd change that to a "pixel-pusher"; and a laborer. I get satisfaction from both - and in my mid-50's, having trashed my knees when I was a commercial farmer, I can no longer do the level of labor I want to, so I depend upon my husband for the heavy lifting. He's a bench builder by day, and even though he's younger, he is starting to feel the physical impacts of years of labor.

    I would not go back to the 1800's per se, but appreciate the qualities of being able to raise some food, be outside, and be physical. FYIW, no one is truly "self-sufficient". We are a congregate species; we all depend upon each other.

    As Carl Sagan said, "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

  7. #7
    Member Juds's Avatar
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    I am too lazy to do any of that. Were I somehow transported back to those times, I would surely die in short order.
    1. Identify what’s most important to you. 2. Minimize or eliminate everything else.

  8. #8
    Mrs-M
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    Only through a challenge. (Like a reality TV show or something along the lines of that).

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    I would have died many years ago from asthma if I were living in 1800.

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    Lets see... as a woman I would be the property of someone else with no legal rights to own land in my name, vote, work outside of the home, or divorce from my hubby (although he could easily divorce me and leave me homeless and penniless). I could be raped or beaten daily by my spouse with no legal consequences to him. I could be raped or beaten daily by my father with no legal consequences to him. I must do exactly what my parents wish at all times since childern are also "property" with no legal rights. I couldn't just go off on my own -ever. Couldn't travel unsupervised or unescorted. I would most likely be married off at the ripe old age of 13 only to die in childbirth at the riper old age of 18 or so after numorous births. I'd probably watch half or more of my children die of some horrible disease. I would be expected to work dawn to dusk and then late into each night doing endless mind boggling boring chores - only to awaken the next day and do them all again. i would be illeterate (OK so I am already ;-)!!), have no education what so ever - and no opportunity to ever get one. All sounds sooo romantic and fun!

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