Comments about ‘Man with master's degree lives in Moab cave without money’

Great piece, Jason.

Why would anyone harbor hostility towards this man? He could live off of my family's leftovers alone. Food in the garbage and last season's clothes to Goodwill? If we're just going to throw so much away, why not let someone like Suelo, who is so peaceful and unassuming, have it?

Now someone challenge me. Tell me, "Well, what would happen if we were all like this man, nobody working and earning and producing?" I don't know about you, but I'm really happy in my house and I'm willing to work to pay for that. That's my choice. And I think I'm in the majority.

great story, really enjoyed it. Good for you Suelo, I feel I am with you in your quest for happiness. You truly are living the principle of waste not want not. You picked a nice climate to endure, my friend. Me, I am a happy slave to the system, thank you very much.

I think material possessions as things that are nice, and that can add to the convenience of life. But it's true we don't need a lot of things to just simply exist. I think it's genuinely what's in a persons heart that really matters. I think money can be used for good and evil. Example: The glasses this guy is waring in the picture adds to the connivence of his life... Does he really need them? Someone somewhere built those glasses, and that required people to engineer, design, etc. That all took money to do. Does that mean that those glasses are corrupt because it took money to build them, even though they enhance the quality of life? I think people choose how much they allow money to control their life and happiness. If you believe in the opposites of all things then you believe with every good thing comes some bad things, It doesn't matter what philosophy your trying to live.

i am so glad the corrupt system has collapsed without his support.

Interesting story, food for thought but I find it Ironic that he thinks he is not linked in the chain of commerce and capitalism. Just because he didn't pay for it doesn't mean money and commerce were not involved in getting it to him. If people shunned money, he would not be able to nab these "crumbs".

One correction: After reading this article I found this man's blog, and read that he does not have a master's degree in Anthropology, just a bachelor's.

I wish we could all model this...he is a true Christian I suppose. We all live to feed the machine--we must produce, consume and do it all over again....

I am truly alienated....

WELL, HE LIVES IN A CAVE FOR PETES SAKE,OF COURSE HE'S A BACHELOR

H. Thoreau was also criticized for his dependence on society. He explained that he wasn't writing a survival guide, but living as simply as he could. "Most people work to get food to have the strenth to work. Me? I eat less."

The concept works in suburbia or Walden Pond or in a cave in Moab. "Simplify, simplify, simplify."

How does he have a blog? Don't computers cost money? What about internet connection? Doesn't that cost money? Sounds to me that this man just wants to live like many other homeless people live -Off the leftovers of others. They are perfectly happy about it. But who pays taxes on that cave of his? If it is on public land... It's my cave too isn't it? He doesn't need to love money but we all should help our society. Thats what makes us good citizens.

I quote from the article: "The point is to live freely, in the present, freely giving and freely taking, which is the way of nature."

What is it exactly that Suelo "gives freely"? If someone give him money he gives it right away. While admirable, I do not count it as giving of one's self as the money was "freely given" to him.

Suelo has mastered the art of "freely taking". While I have no problem with the freely taking of clothes and food that is being thrown out. I do have a problem with he his taking from the tax payers by using the Library computers to maintain his blog. Tax payers foot the bill for the library building, utilities, and computers therein. By living off the land, with no income, Suelo is taking advantage of society without making a contribution of his own.

My husband is constantly encouraging our daughter to finish college and get her degree.

Do you think this article would be good for his next plea of going on to get a Masters??

I too find the "reject consumerism" philosophy a bit odd considering Suelo's best sources are Wal Mart trash bins. All the all, though, digging through trash bins and "making do" sure beat standing on the street corner with a dog and a sign.
We as humans tend to dislike anyone getting too far outside our self imposed boundaries of conduct.
Years ago it was discovered a man and his children were living in a tent, in the snow, in the mountains above Los Alamos NM. No one was hurting or hungry but the outcry was awful, and he was hounded by everyone from the police department to social services, all essentially because he was beating the high-rent system of Los Alamos county.
Before modern "rules" about landfills and dumps were implemented, most of us brought home more from the dump than we deposited.
Albuquerque recently reprimanded a waste management employee who was caught selling usable items from trash brought in. They should have promoted him instead.

Living in a cave, eating dumpster food, no good women to keep him warm, bathing in dirty river water, dirty used clothing, yeash.
All of this to prove a point? Or just justify being lazy?
Either way, I think I will take a hot shower and get ready to go see a good movie.
He can keep on keeping on, I don't give a care.

...are supporting this man.

Where did he get his glasses, that apparently are a pretty good prescription?
What if we all quit throwing edibles away, and composted?
What if he was taxed for his usage of the cave on public(?) or private(?) lands?
So he gets to blog for free, using taxpayer-funded computers and free blogging websites that are subsidized by paying users?

He's NOT living for free. He's just "taking" without contributing.

I dare him to live *without* taking things from others, or living off the productive work of others.

The same evil, corrupt system he eschews is the very system that allows him to live.

I smell a book being written.

Suelo has the right idea, albeit in the extreme. Most of us are on a treadmill of ever-increasing consumerism, which never seems to completely fulfill. I admire his lifestyle as it is, but I think it would be cool if he could find a way to contribute even a meager income - it wouldn't take much to earn enough for his daily bread, and if he could find something that is in line with his innate talents, he might really like it. He would especially have to tweak his situation a bit if he had a family to support.

EVEN A CAVEMAN CAN DO IT >:}

There are many chosing a lifestyle simmilar to this. When the census is taken they, along with college students, are put in the poverty class. No wonder the 'war on poverty' has failed.

He still lives off modern society.

We do spend an awful lot of time and money gathering things when they rarely make us happy.

I wouldn't live that lifestyle, but I'm not going to condemn it, either! Imagine if our society just became a quarter or halfway as self-conscious of our wastefulness and Herculean efforts to maintain our obsession and dependance on money as this man? We don't need to tak eit to the extremes that Suelo has, but the man has my applause for making me stop to examine my own life and how captive I am to that intrinsically worthless green paper. The true ideal, IMHO, would be a world somewhere between our own and Suelo's where work and production are still important and valued, but where it is done with goodwill and "enough is enough" in mind instead of competition and "rising above the others" and the almighty $. If Suelo's life is possible, the middle road surely would be....