Problems with the modern pastoral dream and rural living

As a part of the larger movement to return to nature, some have advocated the complete or partial return to nature through rural living. Some others advocate it not because of nature but because they are simply tired with their 9-to-5 jobs day-in and day-out and the monotony and drab of modern city life. And there are also some like Ted Kaczynski who think that industrial society is inherently against human freedom.

I am only going to address the burnt-out office worker thing, because the rest are ideological reasons and this is not the post to talk about such things.

What spawns this notion

It is easy to have these feeling rise up in you. First your manager does something to anger you, or perhaps you are already displeased with your job. Then, you visit the Alps, or you go on a overnight camp in the Sahara under the Milky Way, or you take a road trip down the Great Ocean Road, or you take a walk atop the fjords of Norway, or you take a twilight climb to the top of Tongariro to watch the sunrise, and you are afflicted with that awe, the wonder, the amazement, and you exclaim, this is life, this is worth living for!

Then when you get back to your cubicle, you greet your colleagues who only pretend to be friendly but you know will stab you in the back at any time, your boss is at you again, you're tasked with another drab feature, useless, boring, mundane, you wail silently, you are broken.

Why do I put up with it? you ask yourself. I just came back from holiday! I stayed at this amazing B&B in a village. It was a little cottage, and my bedroom was on the top floor. It was winter time, gently snowing. I lie down on my bed, and I look up, and I see the little specks of snow gently falling on the roof window. They make the faintest little sounds when they hit the window pane, but together they form a soft pit-a-pat like a light drizzle on the sidewalk. Ah, I could close my eyes and just…

I could go to some rural country and open a small business just like them! Or I could just become a farmer! I would plant my own potatoes, raise my own chickens. Or I would do that thing some people are talking about and retire at 30, or 40 and live off dividends off my investments! I could go on some work holiday and get a work holiday visa, maybe in New Zealand or something like that, work on a farm, shear some sheep, its gonna be great. Instead I'm wasting my youth in this bloody office job!

Why it's a poor move

Let me point out some flaws with your plan.

The Work holiday

First of all, consider the work holiday. This is absolutely stupid. You're trading a boring office job for a tiring field job. In ancient China, the examination system which allowed you to enter the imperial bureaucracy, was seen as the way out of a back breaking farming job or peasant life. Instead, you're thinking of going the other way. You're trading an office job where you use your brain for a field job where you use your hands.

But it's not as taxing on the soul! Or so you say. When you start shearing one sheep, it feels fun because of the novelty. When you start shearing a whole field of sheep, trust me, human nature is going to make your feel like shit.

Well I'll just not shear sheep! Yea, good luck. Even plumbers need some kind of certification to be one. You're not going to be allowed to drive the tractors or the plows as some office boy. You're just an intern, but farm. You're going to end up as the water boy.

You're never going to be free as the worker. You're still doing a job that you may be unwilling to do.

The money

People have historically moved from the rural regions into the cities due to the opportunities, mainly economic. Now you wish to forgo them.

Yes, but I don't care about money, so I don't mind the lower paying work holiday! It's a holiday after all!

Firstly, it's not going to be a holiday, read the previous point. It's just another job.

Secondly, it's just plainly a really poor move. If you didn't care about money, you would just quit your job and have went on an actual holiday! You would spend time doing things that you actually like ¹! If you were a burnt-out tech bro, you would spend maybe a month or two working on side projects. Maybe you could try gardening! cooking! fishing! mountaineering! There's so many better alternatives than just bailing out and go shear sheep.

Ah, but I won't be able to get hired after such a long empty period on my resume, you say. Well you won't be able to put your farming experience on your resume either! So you might as well just take however long a break you want, and not go find another dumb job in whatever dung riddled fields of wherever!

Being a farmer

So, working on a farm isn't going to cut it. Let's save up and open a farm, and I'll be my own boss.

Right. So you're going to save up a couple of millions to buy maybe a few hundred hectares, and let's just say you're going to rent your equipment, and hire a few workers and a few consultants to help guide you and run your farm. Or if that's too scary, you're can consider more low-capital things like just timber planting. You could get some land and plant pine or other trees for a few dollars each, and wait 10 years and get massive returns. How long would it take to break even? I ran the numbers with official stats, it's at least 30 years.

That's fine, you say. I don't mind waiting.

That again, is just a really lousy move, because if you did have that much capital to get all that land, have you considered just investing in the S&P500 and retiring? 7% annual returns means a doubling of the principle every 10 years. And after 30 years you are content with breaking even?

Something else, maybe not farming

I'll just open that nice B&B in the Alps then. So you think it's just because farming is low return? So somehow hospitality is going to be better? That's just kidding yourself. Besides, who's going to do the laundry? There are no laundry shops in the rural regions.

Again, it's still not fixing it. The opportunity cost does not make sense. Why would you invest in such a low return business that also carries non negligible risk? You could just use those savings to go on a holiday! If you saved 1M to blow on your brilliant small business idea, you could instead use it to stay in the comfy snowy village cottage for around 10 years (200 a day on rent, 100 a day on food and supplies, already way over the top), ignoring inflation. And you wouldn't even have to work a single day.

Conclusion

Honestly, I'm not sure.

Many times, it's just a overly romanticised, grass is greener on the other side, overly simplistic notion that you can break free through rural living.

I do not doubt that people living in the countryside are happier than city dwellers. But I am just saying, it is a completely burn all bridges approach. There are probably other ways to solve your problems, and this is like jumping out a window to flee a fire.