Having my car not start in Fairbanks was much, much more challenging than the outhouse. It took a lot of vigilance to make sure the battery stayed warm enough t

Having my car not start in Fairbanks was much, much more challenging than the outhouse. It took a lot of vigilance to make sure the battery stayed warm enough to hold a charge. I had to install heaters on my battery, engine, and transmission and remember to plug them in every single time I stopped the engine. If there was not a place to plug in, we left the car idling. If the car died, we were risking injury or even death from frostbite or hypothermia. That was a very serious challenge to have to deal with on a daily basis. The outhouse, on the other hand, was almost zero maintenance. The only cleaning I had to do was occasional sweeping. It was nicely made from cedar wood with plenty of natural ventilation (no door), it never smelt terrible or felt disgusting. It takes a lot of work and money to make an indoor bathroom stay as nice as my outhouse was naturally. I agree that you will find very many people in the developed world who think that going to an outhouse at 50 below would probably suck hard, but relatively few of them have first-hand experience so that's a hypothetical situation for them. In Alaska you can certainly find plenty of people who voluntarily live this way. Not out of poverty or being a total recluse, but because the negative parts simply don't turn out to be as bad as it might seem before you've tried it, and the positive experiences associated with living closer to nature are deeply rewarding.