...'cause whenever they turn off my electricity when I can't pay (Smart Meters! Yay!) then we just enjoy the dark until we can pay.
I'm fortunate to live in a climate where the pipes don't freeze and it's never too hot to sleep at night. My wife and I have friends and neighbors who don't heat or cool their homes at all. My parents are even more extreme -- they retired and ran off to a rain forest. The water they drink and bathe in is collected off their roof. Electricity? They can take it or leave it. They eat local food. I've never been to their retirement digs. If civilization collapses tomorrow maybe I'll find a sailboat and visit them. It's only a day's walk from the nearest beach. I even own a sextant and a tough accurate watch, just in case...
I'm unfortunate to live in a society without socialized medicine. I joke around with the poor miserable people whose job it is to collect medical bills. Most of them are nice, it's the only job they could get. No reason to be mean to them. The rare nasty, threatening bill collectors I just laugh at. There's a kind of freedom having a credit rating in the toilet.
I've been with my doctor more than twenty years now, he sees me whether I'm paid up or not, insured or uninsured. Maybe I'm entertaining and I've never been more than a year behind paying him, although there have been times I've avoided him because I owe him money. My wife and I have been uninsurable. We've run out expensive COBRAs to the bitter end. Our current mediocre insurance is through her work.
I've got just enough solar power that my DSL connection, phone, and $10 junkyard laptop won't go silent for lack of electricity. If I fall below that standard I still have a library card and friends. My homeless person skills are up-to-date if no family will tolerate me, or if I'm under-medicated and unable to tolerate them.
I'm a very fortunate human being. I've never been among the "uneducated bourgeois brats."
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