Rural dweller here. It sucks. The people who move out to the countryside because they think it’s more affordable typically move or are foreclosed upon within a matter of a few years.

I have my reasons for being where I am (organizing, but won’t say more cause duh), but it really is tough. I also grew up extremely rural, and knew what I was getting myself into when I moved out here.

I have a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that the tradwife/cottage-core/homesteading movements are largely a psyop to force a transfer of land-wealth out of the hands of the remaining small landowners of Amerikkka’s rural areas. Many of the remaining small landholders don’t want to sell their land to megacorp farmers or housing developers and want to see their family farms stay family farms, but their progeny are smart and experienced enough to know the numbers don’t work out, so they sell to these aspiring homesteaders who go bankrupt five years in because they racked up literally all of the debt and subsequently are foreclosed upon and the land is purchased for a fire sale by big ag or housing developers or they sell to a large operator or developer before they’re foreclosed upon. Iunno. I’ve seen it happen enough times now where it’s, at the very least, extremely convenient for the capitalists.