I have several relatives who live off the grid in remote places. They're not survivalists or militia folk or anything like that. They just like to maximize their privacy.
The keys to survival appear to be: Generate your own power (so you aren't beholden to a utility company), have a well drilled for water, have a boss who will cash your paycheck for you on payday, and live near a town where paying by cash isn't considered strange.
They still pay taxes, though, so they can't be totally anonymous.
One goes a step farther. He builds his own motorcycles to get around. According to him, the law in his state says that if your conveyance is home-built to a certain percentage (51%, maybe?), then you don't have to register it with the state. I have no idea if that's true, but to my knowledge he hasn't had any trouble with it in the 20 years I've known him.
I've met similar folk through back roads travel. Something I can't ever put my finger on is the mild squalor (my opinion, not saying this is true for your relatives) people are willing to endure. Sure, they do it for "maximum privacy", but can't you achieve the same relative privacy in ways that might lead to a higher quality of life? Generating power, drilling wells, boss cashing checks, etc... I get the sense there might be some form of mental health e.g. paranoia, but that's just a guess. I'd be really interested to hear your take on it if you don't mind sharing.
For example, drilling wells is very common, even in densely populated places like New Jersey. When I lived there, having municipal water was very unusual in some surprisingly populated counties.
I think what you're seeing isn't so much squalor in terms of poverty or dirt. I think what you see is the result of people doing things on their own. No one can be an expert at everything. No one can do as good a job as a professional. But if your value some other thing a little higher than the fit and finish of a professional job, DIY is good enough.
This is why my favorite Max Headroom character was Blank Reg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_(TV_series)#Blank...
I have several relatives who live off the grid in remote places. They're not survivalists or militia folk or anything like that. They just like to maximize their privacy.
The keys to survival appear to be: Generate your own power (so you aren't beholden to a utility company), have a well drilled for water, have a boss who will cash your paycheck for you on payday, and live near a town where paying by cash isn't considered strange.
They still pay taxes, though, so they can't be totally anonymous.
One goes a step farther. He builds his own motorcycles to get around. According to him, the law in his state says that if your conveyance is home-built to a certain percentage (51%, maybe?), then you don't have to register it with the state. I have no idea if that's true, but to my knowledge he hasn't had any trouble with it in the 20 years I've known him.