I live in what was, two hundred years ago, the poorest dwelling you could find. Two houses put together, one-up-and-one-down with open fire places. Houses built for farm labourers who were expected to spend at least eighteen hours a day in the fields and on the land. The wives kept house and had babies. Yet this house came with enough land for each family to grow their own food, and a well for water.
Of course there was no bathroom, no drainage and no toilet inside or out. Human waste, contrary to popular opinion, can be recycled by the soil. There was no need of a garage because there were no cars. As some stage early on a barn was added to the dwellings for a horse to be stabled. At the same time as these houses were built, an Earl of the Realm was building a mansion twenty miles away or so with thousands of acres of land. And that land also produced food – and income.
And that is really the point, because when you use the land as capitalism does, only to create your own wealth, you create poverty. When you divorce people from the land, even if that is what they want, you create poverty. Because poverty comes not with the lack of money, but with the complete loss of power over one’s destiny; and without access to fresh water and food you have no power whatsoever.