[malyk]

The problem though is that you likely /cant/ pay for the privilege of living your rural life.

It cost $2 to $3 million to build the undivided 2 lane road for each mile out to your house. Assuming an acre per house on that road (both sides) (208 ft of frontage per house gives you 25 per side and 50 on both sides of the road) Then you personally would have had to shell out ~$50,000 to build the road...as would all 50 of your neighbors. More if the average property is larger than an acre.

https://blog.midwestind.com/cost-of-building-road/

Yearly maintenance of that road is also not cheap. Figures vary a lot based on location, but lets go with NY’s lower bound...$4500 per year per mile. You and your $50 neighbors would be paying about $90 a year each. Not bad.

https://blog.midwestind.com/much-cost-maintain-mile-road/

But, every 10 to 15 years your road will have to be completely resurfaced, which is about $625,000 per mile or $12,500 for you and your 50 neighbors (~$1000 per year)

https://www.alphapavingtexas.com/faq/asphalt-paving-life-exp...

And thats just the roads. You have to have a water/sewer system. You need power, telephone, cable, landscaping for the roads, snow removal (possibly), and a myriad of other services provided by your municipality.

You and your 50 neighbors are certainly NOT paying for all those yourselves.

In a city, that same mile of road likely costs $4-$6 million per mile. but instead of sharing that cost with 50 neighbors you are sharing it with 5,000 or more.

Anyway, I love the idea of a rural property. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that you and your rural neighbors are actually paying the true costs to live out there.

I’m struggling to find a blog series that talked about this in depth right now, but it’s just not financially sustainable to build/maintain rural and even suburban infrastructure given the economic base in those areas. We’ve really backed ourselves into a corner.

[toomuchtodo]

Besides roads, I don't need any other services. I can provide my own power (solar), my own water (well), my own sewer (septic field), wireless service alone would be fine (no cable or telephone), and I can skip the snow removal with a 4 wheel drive vehicle (or even not if I'm in a warmer climate in the US).

Rural life has existed for over a century, so forgive me when it's waved away as too costly. Would some standards need to change? Possibly, but it’s not impossible.

[malyk]

Living off the grid is nice for you. How many other people can do the same or want to do the same? I legitimately dont know, but my guess would be that it isnt the majority

That being said, there is a difference between true rural, like you are talking about, and “rural” in the sense of exurb mcmansions on 2 acre lots, which I think much of the “i hate urban areas” folks have in mind.