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Comment by chasd00 | Hacker News Reader

I think Starlink and amazon delivery reach will have a bigger impact reshaping rural America than affordable housing. Granted, affordable housing is a big draw. There's so much entertainment and work available online that a solid Internet connection can make up a lot for the isolation of rural living. In fact, that isolation probably will come as a welcome relief to many people who make their living on the Internet.

My wife and I bought 20 acres in the mountains of SE Oklahoma (really just hills) at the height of the pandemic. It's a nice place to escape to for my boys and we're working on building out a cabin. We have power/water and with starlink have pretty much everything we need. My 2024 taxes on the land were literally $9.00 :)

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My wife and I tried that, but we did not find that there was any amount of anything available online which could make up for the boredom and loneliness of rural life. We left our affordable house in the sticks behind and moved back to expensive ol' Seattle, where we have friends, things to do, places you can go without having to drive there, and a much better life overall. We'll never go back.

I did enjoy building an elaborate treehouse while we were out there. We still fantasize about building (or maybe just buying) a cabin in the woods, or out on one of the islands. But it's one thing to have a place you can escape to when you feel like it, and quite another to be stuck there all the time.

Having outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, kayaking, gardening/farming would make rural living a lot less dull.

No question about it; we did all of those things! We took up new indoor hobbies, too; I learned to bake bread, and my wife made tile mosaics. The life was not without its charms. No matter how busy we kept ourselves, though, it was lonely, and the feeling that I was perpetually just killing time, waiting for something to happen, grew hard to bear.

yeah my wife really wants to move there but i grew up in the country/sticks and understand the implications. We're considering it a retirement backup plan. like if our finances fall apart or something at least we can go there and huddle together in the cabin heh.

It amazed me how people would say we could not afford $3000 a head to run optic fiber to rural homes ($5 a month for the 50 year lifespan of the fiber) but instead we're supposed to dogpile in coastal cities where it costs upwards of $500k to build a modes housing unit.

Your cost estimate for running fiber is missing one to two zeroes.

I don't think that this level of isolation is good for most people though obviously I will not speak for you. I am a part of several in person communities that cannot be replaced by fast internet.

but once you finish that cabin, those property taxes will probably go up a huge amount, right?

i'm jealous. This is such a great idea, I wish i could do it.

Late to your comment but, yes, it will. I love telling people about it because it’s so crazy to me. I keep the bill on my desk when I need a smile haha.

One interesting thing about SE Oklahoma is the way people make deals with each other that don’t involve money. Idk if it comes from the majority of the state being Native American but there are handshake/barter deals all over the place. People seem reluctant to bring money to the deal, it’s always “I’ll do this for you if you can do that for me” type setups.

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