A few years ago I watched a show called "Meet the Natives", in which members of a tribe from Vanuatu (the one that worships Prince Philip, but anyway) came to the UK. It was created and aired by Vanuatu TV and you can still find it on Youtube. But anyway, in one scene they see people sleeping, homeless, on the streets of Manchester. Then they look at all the empty buildings around and they ask their British hosts what on earth is going on.
The British man starts to explain that it's not that simple - they have to register as homeless, get on a list, there have to be housing benefits, rents paid, proof that they can't work, etc. He talked for around 5 minutes and then one of the tribe members kind of went:
"Oh. On my island, if a man doesn't have a house, we build him a house."
This tiny moment brought the world crashing around 18-year-old me as I realised how ridiculous it is. And what is even worse is that it's not as if we can opt out of the system. Some people might argue "well, you can't expect the government to just hand you free food and housing - you've got to work for it" to which one may want to respond "OK, fine, I'll go to the forest and catch my own food and build my own house". But this ISN'T ALLOWED. Self-sustaining communities (in the US) have been destroyed and dismantled because someone decided that not being connected to the national power grid meant they are not really an acceptable residential property. A man in Oregon was JAILED for catching his own rain water. A woman growing her own medicinal herbs for her business had her front lawn torn up by state officials who claimed that only plain grass was allowed on a front lawn. Go camp in the woods because you can't afford rent and I guarantee you'll be harassed by cops (and God forbid if you do that while not being white).
This is why most people in Europe laugh at the fact that the US calls itself "the land of the free". At least here, in the Czech Republic where I live, people have free healthcare (more or less), free university education up to the age of 26, and can go collect mushrooms in the forest or grow their own vegetables without fear of getting into trouble with anyone. But I think it's still far more 'strict' here than other countries - for example, my Indian friend tells me that you can build what you want on your own property without needing permission from a governmental body, you can sell whatever you want without needing a license etc - and while there are definitely downsides to that, there are no barriers stopping people from trying to get their basic needs met.
