I left DM’s cabin feeling as he seemed to feel: that subsistence living was not all that different from what we think of as the regular economy. It is controlled by a few, and success is only partly determined by one’s ability. It helps to be born into it, to grow up around it, and to have the right connections. For hunter-gatherers as well as for a majority of Americans, to exist is to be a part of the service economy, to be in at the bottom, and to wish and wonder about the wants and needs of others who control the real money and live with real security.

David Treuer, “Off the Land”