I would love to debate about the exceptions. If you are willing to as well?

@sambathkumaar maybe when I get home later ut off to a meeting now

The idea is fascinating. What kind of work would you be doing in a remote village or city like that?

@sambathkumaar My work is portable. I'm a 100% telecommute. All I need is a good Internet connection and a willingness to be available for consultation roughly on US west coast time, which would be like 2nd shift over there. And since Norway uses Longyearbyen as the test bed for much of its tech, and the Spitzbergen archipelago is served by an undersea fiber optic cable, it has basically as good an Internet as you'll find anywhere. Everyone has gigabit Ethernet, basically. When you think about it, they probably all need it during the arctic night.

There's passenger jet service daily so it's not a big problem to fly down to Oslo and from there wherever else you need to go. I would need to travel to the US once a year to a business meeting, and I'd have to foot the international part of the trip on my nickel, but that's feasible for me to do and would be an excuse to visit family while I'm at it.

Otherwise of course the smallness of the community (< 3,000) and the limited job opportunities would be the fly in the ointment. If you're not a software developer like me, or a writer, or some other person whose job is not connected to geography, you'd have to work in the local tourism industry probably, or the world seed bank or something else located up there.

@mordant Exciting actually. I would love a remote lifestyle away from the social rules of larger human communes. The chains of debt and family expectations are around both my legs now. Although my mind is free to fly wherever, the physical body is contained by limitations (sigh). Perhaps, messages like yours are pointers towards where I must be looking at. Thanks for sharing!

@sambathkumaar @sambathkumaar There's one other way to live in Longyearbyen and that is off retirement savings, however, cost of living is quite high. On the other hand there's not as many ways to spend discretionary income.

There is no private real estate for sale. It's a former company town (coal mining, now closed) so it's rental all the way. You even have to rent land to build a house on it. I can never find anything listed online that's available to rent either (apart from hotels, which seem perpetually booked up). Not sure how I'd even visit the place as a tourist unless I planned it out 3 years.

I agree. I have seen similar behaviour myself. The moment I cross the border, I can sense indifference and disrespect in casual walks of life. I am sure people there do it innocently but you can tell the difference once you've experienced cultured lifestyle and you meet with something that is not as cultured. There's nothing wrong in it as long as they don't affect you but then again there's nothing wrong in being polite and humble.

@actofdog well, I'm glad you haven't had any real negative experiences here in the U.S.