>>I was pretty annoyed that the writer didn't make the point that they only could do this because other people helped them to do it.
Agreed. While it is possible in some benign locales to live off the land, you don't hear about the ones actually doing it because they really are off the grid.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
