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I stayed in a small town outside Chablis, France, many years ago. I rented a room above the only restaurant in town. There were a few businesses, mostly food-re

I stayed in a small town outside Chablis, France, many years ago. I rented a room above the only restaurant in town. There were a few businesses, mostly food-related and clothing repair. Everything just seemed slowed down. I watched a man in waders unload a dead boar he had just shot to the butcher at 9am. I watched two other men repairing brickwork on a foundation. I watched another woman tending a large garden, then go to work at a bar/restaurant. The stores were open for just a few hours. The shelves were free of random plastic trinkets and gadgets. It just seemed like it was 1/10th the normal speed, somewhat Luddite... and every task seemed oddly fundamental. I've also encountered towns like this in Spain, Greece, Austria, Mexico, Guatemala, Chile, Uruguay, Thailand and Cambodia. After reading these comments, I would never have believed that so many small towns exist that seem untouched by 24-hour stores and everything cheap and on-demand. It sounds inevitable that everyone is eventually pushed into hyperinflationary always-working mode. But yet, these places persist. I might even chalk it up to depressed economies and "third-world" nature, but my samples include all sorts of economies. I think we choose what kind of lifestyle we want, but it needs to be done at the community level. Without going all "we should all be farmers hippie dippy portland nature fetishist", it does seem like decisions have consequences and it is possible to steer away from hyperactivity.

runarberg 5y ago
It is funny that you mention Portland there. In my experience Portland is precisely this fast moving town, everything 24/7, with stressed out workers where everything has to be done fast and for profits. Don’t get me wrong, Portland is a nice town and worth the visit. To an extent it is more chill then say Seattle or San Fransisco. If you want a chill town in the West I think Boise, Idaho or Santa Fe, New Mexico, are a better fit. Although I do admit that people don’t generally think of the hippie dippy type when they think of Boise.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  Yeah, there is a vibrant tech scene in portland that fits what you say. I like it more than San Fran because I feel like I can fit the whole town in my head, whereas San Fran is a bit overwhelming (too many meetups up there in San Fran!!) But PDX really does have a bubble-headed progressive wing. They voted NOT to put fluoride in the water! Boise is simply too far right. I don't want to live in a light purple zone surrounded by bright-red crazies. I'll prefer the type of crazy that protests for social justice over protesting to keep facism and white supremacy. Yet Portland has great examples of progressives who have their heart in the right place but forget to think critically. New Mexico is collapsing. Outside of ABQ and Santa Fe, it is full of ghost towns. Quite literally boarded up towns between Las Cruces and Roswell. It's a state in decline.
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
I think part of it is the weird dynamics of cost of living increasing. Rent and housing prices in a lot of places are at a record high. A lot of this hustle culture - or overwork, or the having to work 2-3 jobs and still be poor - is all down to the cost of living vs income. Raise wages, lower cost of living. This will benefit everyone. @employers of HN: Compare your wages with the cost of living in the location you expect your employers to be. Ensure that their rent plus fixed expenses is at most a third of their wage, and ensure that they need to work at most 40 hours a week to earn that. If you do not meet that standard, you are underpaying your employees. If you make them work more than 40 hours a week - either directly or indirectly via e.g. slack channels - pay them gratuitous overtime on the one hand, and see to reducing the need for it on the other.
- benhurmarcel 5y ago
  > @employers of HN That sounds all nice but why would they do that when they can find people who accept to work longer for less?
  - kwhitefoot 5y ago
    Because not everyone thinks like Gordon Gecko.
    - conjectures 5y ago
      It's not about that. It's about whether it's a 'stable' solution or not. It's the same reason why most of the chocolate sold isn't fair trade and there's often modern slavery produced beans in mainstream products. Calls for voluntary improvement are great, and may be heeded sometimes, but aren't uniformly reliable when there is no effective legal requirement and financial incentives point the other way.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - minikites 5y ago
2ion 5y ago
This only is possible with people owning their homes and the land they're built on. With asset prices outgrowing wages and thereby pricing out generations out of the same arrangement for most of their working life and also beyond for lifetime renters, this will be possible for fewer and fewer families.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  Bingo! The slow life in small European towns, like grandfather described, works because almost everyone there is a part of the boomer generation so they are financially secure by now, with their homes or small businesses inherited across family generations or fully paid off, have no loans or debt, so then they can afford to do only the work that they enjoy and fulfills them. Younger generations that have no family business or real estate to inherit, have no option of such a cushy lifestyle so their option is moving to big cities/wealthier countries and grind on the hamster-wheel or risk being left out of the game due to ever increasing real-estate costs and stagnating wages. Near the Austrian alps, a region of mostly farmers in the 1950's, most of the land there could be bough and houses build for pennies, with very little regulations. A father could get a factory job with no advanced formal education, receive training from the company and make enough money to support a family, take them on vacation and even buy a second home. Fast forward to today, real estate prices have exploded there while wages have stagnated and competition fiercely increased along with the requirements for education. Homes in that region that were just poor farmers about 7 decades ago, are now worth millions and the small family business there are making bank thanks to the tourism boom, but a factory worker today can't even dream of building a house there anymore, hell, even a SW dev can't afford to do that due to the scarcity of land and increase in regulations plus wage stagnation.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  Totally. It is why this exponential housing boom scares the bejeebers outta me. And I'm in my 50's on my 4th house. I've benefited from it, but I know it isn't going to end well.

runarberg 5y ago

It is funny that you mention Portland there. In my experience Portland is precisely this fast moving town, everything 24/7, with stressed out workers where everything has to be done fast and for profits. Don’t get me wrong, Portland is a nice town and worth the visit. To an extent it is more chill then say Seattle or San Fransisco. If you want a chill town in the West I think Boise, Idaho or Santa Fe, New Mexico, are a better fit. Although I do admit that people don’t generally think of the hippie dippy type when they think of Boise.

SavantIdiot 5y ago
Yeah, there is a vibrant tech scene in portland that fits what you say. I like it more than San Fran because I feel like I can fit the whole town in my head, whereas San Fran is a bit overwhelming (too many meetups up there in San Fran!!) But PDX really does have a bubble-headed progressive wing. They voted NOT to put fluoride in the water! Boise is simply too far right. I don't want to live in a light purple zone surrounded by bright-red crazies. I'll prefer the type of crazy that protests for social justice over protesting to keep facism and white supremacy. Yet Portland has great examples of progressives who have their heart in the right place but forget to think critically. New Mexico is collapsing. Outside of ABQ and Santa Fe, it is full of ghost towns. Quite literally boarded up towns between Las Cruces and Roswell. It's a state in decline.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

I think part of it is the weird dynamics of cost of living increasing. Rent and housing prices in a lot of places are at a record high. A lot of this hustle culture - or overwork, or the having to work 2-3 jobs and still be poor - is all down to the cost of living vs income. Raise wages, lower cost of living. This will benefit everyone. @employers of HN: Compare your wages with the cost of living in the location you expect your employers to be. Ensure that their rent plus fixed expenses is at most a third of their wage, and ensure that they need to work at most 40 hours a week to earn that. If you do not meet that standard, you are underpaying your employees. If you make them work more than 40 hours a week - either directly or indirectly via e.g. slack channels - pay them gratuitous overtime on the one hand, and see to reducing the need for it on the other.

benhurmarcel 5y ago
> @employers of HN That sounds all nice but why would they do that when they can find people who accept to work longer for less?
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  Because not everyone thinks like Gordon Gecko.
  - conjectures 5y ago
    It's not about that. It's about whether it's a 'stable' solution or not. It's the same reason why most of the chocolate sold isn't fair trade and there's often modern slavery produced beans in mainstream products. Calls for voluntary improvement are great, and may be heeded sometimes, but aren't uniformly reliable when there is no effective legal requirement and financial incentives point the other way.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - minikites 5y ago

2ion 5y ago

This only is possible with people owning their homes and the land they're built on. With asset prices outgrowing wages and thereby pricing out generations out of the same arrangement for most of their working life and also beyond for lifetime renters, this will be possible for fewer and fewer families.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Bingo! The slow life in small European towns, like grandfather described, works because almost everyone there is a part of the boomer generation so they are financially secure by now, with their homes or small businesses inherited across family generations or fully paid off, have no loans or debt, so then they can afford to do only the work that they enjoy and fulfills them. Younger generations that have no family business or real estate to inherit, have no option of such a cushy lifestyle so their option is moving to big cities/wealthier countries and grind on the hamster-wheel or risk being left out of the game due to ever increasing real-estate costs and stagnating wages. Near the Austrian alps, a region of mostly farmers in the 1950's, most of the land there could be bough and houses build for pennies, with very little regulations. A father could get a factory job with no advanced formal education, receive training from the company and make enough money to support a family, take them on vacation and even buy a second home. Fast forward to today, real estate prices have exploded there while wages have stagnated and competition fiercely increased along with the requirements for education. Homes in that region that were just poor farmers about 7 decades ago, are now worth millions and the small family business there are making bank thanks to the tourism boom, but a factory worker today can't even dream of building a house there anymore, hell, even a SW dev can't afford to do that due to the scarcity of land and increase in regulations plus wage stagnation.
SavantIdiot 5y ago
Totally. It is why this exponential housing boom scares the bejeebers outta me. And I'm in my 50's on my 4th house. I've benefited from it, but I know it isn't going to end well.