Working for Not Much

Kevin Carson links to an interesting post about how much it costs us just to go to work http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/09/could-you-live-without-money.html . Pollard, the author, describes a scenario in which a Canadian household earning about 80K Canadian actually nets only 20% after accounting for the costs of work. The calculations include having to live in a more expensive place than necessary if you did not work and savings from growing some of your own food and making things yourself that you have to buy now.

An acquaintance of my wife's recently discovered that her New York apartment was valued at over $1 mm. Her husband suggested that they sell the apartment, get a trailer in the country, and retire, but she would have none of it. I would be tempted.

The Pollard piece inspired me to crunch the numbers in my household's case, and it turns out that at least half of our net income after taxes can be characterized as "costs of sales"i.e. we would not have the costs if we were not wage slaves. The big ticket item is the monstrous mortgage that we could reduce or forego in a cheaper area (heck, some communities in the prairies are giving away land if you will settle on it). Cut out commuting costs, the second car and associated expenses, the dog walker, the lawn and snow plow guy, and lunches in the city and you come up with over $20K in additional annual savings by not working. If it was conceivable (and it is not) that we might grow our own food, make our own furniture, and do our own home repairs, we might well save even thousands more.

I just have to figure out how to earn the balance that would be needed in the outback where work is probably scarce. Oh, and convince Mrs Vache Folle to move to the land of the slack jawed. The former problem is surmountable. The latter - not so much.