CHAPTER 7

Free Rides and Piggybacking Off the Grid

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Not everyone who gets off the grid does so for altruistic reasons. In fact, most people in Third World countries are off-grid because they have a very limited grid to work with—at least, in terms of what North Americans would understand. Just as interesting is the large group of people in America who essentially live off-grid in such a way that they are not financially responsible for the portion of grid resources they do consume, nor responsible in any way to provide grid resources for others to use. In this world, it is possible to directly or indirectly use unlimited grid resources without lifting a finger to pay for it in the traditional sense. Who are these people? How does this all work out?

First, let’s divide these people into some subcultures. The first is a welfare subculture—those whose consumption of grid resources outweighs their production of resources simply because of their inability to support themselves financially. If they had the money, most of them would love to have the choice to live off- or on-grid and pay for or produce their share, but for the moment their present circumstances do not allow them any choice. The result is that they reap the benefits of the grid without having the responsibility to contribute to or pay for it. The expense is borne by taxpayers and by donations and grants. We—you and I—feed, shelter, and provide waste management for these people.

The second is a vagabond subculture. People in this group are most often, though not always, quite capable of producing grid resources, but are simply not interested. They may hunker down in a commune or collective farm, or may wander the countryside and the world living as cheaply as possible and taking advantage (in a rational and respectable sense) of the grid resources easily available to them.

The third is a career subculture. Their professional or volunteer careers, their politics, or their crimes place them directly under the care of an agency or organization that is fully responsible for the grid resources they consume. In many cases the agencies and organizations, as well as the individual members of this group, turn a blind eye to the resources they burn, and often burn them in enormously disproportionate amounts.

Grid resources—shelter, and the power to cook, clean, and handle waste management—are provided for the welfare subculture in three forms: food provision (food banks and soup kitchens), shelter (shantytowns, flophouses, and goodwill shelters), and miscellaneous (subsidies of various kinds).

In the vagabond subculture, grid resources are often provided by friends and neighbors who invite an individual or group to join them in their homes, collective farms, or communal sites. These individuals or groups are commonly asked to take some small part of the responsibility for off-grid resources. Communal sites are often excellent producers of off-grid resources that result from the sum of individual efforts within the group.

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A treehouse at a communal site on Maui. Individuals accepted onto the land can build dwellings and grow gardens on small jungle sites in return for a commitment to stay and just one hour of work per day to contribute to the community survival and financial needs.

Vagabonding may also fall under the squatting category. Squatting is normally a derogatory term, but here we’re using it simply as a category into which we can place the use of fee-free living space and its associated grid resources. There are a lot of very interesting lifestyles that fit into this category; for example, those who use free campground space (e.g., abandoned building sites, Bureau of Land Management lands). Let’s also include expeditionary adventuring (essentially, outdoor adventure trips into the backcountry or remote areas that last two weeks or more) as part of this category. Some groups—for example, mountain climbing expeditions—go for months in the backcountry or into Third World locations, carrying along with them their own “mini-grid.” This can be very expensive, but a surprisingly large number of people are able to perpetuate this lifestyle by providing promotional material to their corporate sponsors. Free shelter, free food, free fuel, free gear, free fun for as long as the members of the team can make their sponsors happy.

Finally, vagabonding often falls under the clubbing category. This is where the vagabond pays bargain rates for austere living conditions that include access to grid resources. The vagabond himself is not responsible for anything to do with the grid. These include private hospitality clubs and places like the YMCA. Another potential addition to this list would be the eternal student ... living on or off campus with Mom and Dad’s money, casually changing majors and pursuing questionable social goals.

The career subculture of grid avoiders includes military personnel under the watchful care of Uncle Sam, and commercial sailors and offshore oil riggers whose grids are right there with them on the boat or oil rig. It would also include employees in any remote permanent station where the staff lives independently from major utility resources. Grid ignorance is often one of the perks enjoyed by many government workers and politicians, and it’s certainly an inherent part of the life led by criminals in prison (please excuse the use of the words politicians and criminals in the same sentence).

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Campground host’s solar rig, courtesy of the U.S. government.

The career subculture also includes those groups and individuals who accept a reduced reliance on the grid as a normal part of their service, including VISTA and Peace Corps volunteers, missionaries, backcountry rangers, and campground hosts, among others.

So what is the purpose of this chapter? It’s simply to acknowledge that all off-grid lifestyles are not voluntary or a result of noble sacrifice on anyone’s part. For many people the problem with the grid is the fact that one has to pay for it, and for many of those individuals, the answer is to make someone else pay for it, or to simply do without.

Here are some websites of interest: