Thoreauian Mathematics

One of the most charming passages of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is him tallying up his income and expenses (ingoes and outgoes), and concluding that he needed to work about 30–40 days as a day-laborer in order to fully support himself for a year. Of course, Thoreau built his own house, planted seeds, and in general attempted to be as self-sustaining as possible, which certainly went a long way towards achieving his goal.

Yet, I wondered, some 170 years after Walden’s publication, how the Thoreauian mathematics have changed, if in any manner at all. Instead of trying to replicate his experiment exactly, I decided to follow Thoreau’s advice:

I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do. It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.

So, instead of trying to calculate the cost of building a cabin in New England and sustaining myself partly from my own crops, I posed a hypothetical which felt closer to me.

In terms of location, I would like a place on the edge of modern conveniences, that is to say, I should be within an hour’s walk of food and basic supplies at any time. The actual structure itself might resemble a teched-up version of Thoreau’s cabin, including basic amenities (I do not intend to bathe in a lake). Besides the rent of that, other expenses will include bills, food, drink, and minimal digital services.

In terms of income, I would rely on a part-time job combined with part-time self-employment. The exact hours of each will be guided by the expenses, such that if I find my budget getting tight, I will look to increase either my hours or my self-employment efforts.

With that determined, we can start sketching out some numbers. In terms of expenses, we have:

adding up to $7480. My 10-hour per week part-time job currently earns me $740 a month, that being roughly $18.50 per hour. To cover my annual expenses, I would need to put in just over 404 hours over the year. Assuming a working day is 8 hours, that gives me a total of 51 days—not miles off from Thoreau’s 30–40 days estimate. I have left out the income generated by self-employment since it is partly leisure, which makes difficult the performing of cold calculations on it. In any case, that income will be less than the part-time employment, so I will consider it a nice bonus, a financial safety buffer.

According to these calculations, it seems I need to sacrifice about 400 hours each year (out of 8765 available) in order to live a peaceful, modest life. I have always been attracted to the idea, but doing these rough Thoreauian mathematics has made it even more appealing. Perhaps one day.