There's overlap in travelers who work festivals in the summer, dpw at burningman and spend some of the winter in slab city.
There's also digital nomads doing vanlife there.
Much of the art has a distinct BRC vibe. The founder of East Jesus was a burner in the art car scene. Last winter there was a giant LED penis up at one of the camps, and spaceport 42 is a collection of 6 burned out trailer chassis planted vertically in the ground.
I think the article under estimates how many people live there in winter, and over estimates how many people are there during the summer.
During the winter some camp will host a gathering usually an open mic most days of the week. Hanging out around a camp fire listening to songs one time I commented to my neighbor how I've never heard so many songs about a place before. He said, 'no song writer comes to slab city and doesn't write a song about slab city.
As someone who lives in India (no DST) but interacts frequently with people in the USA. I hate it. Maybe it was rational before mass globalization, but now that many of us interact regularly across time zones and national borders it complicates time, which should be sacrosanct.
I've been doing this in India for the past 10 years. At this point I've basically set up my burningman camp on an organic farm on the edge of Bangalore. I run a code school where people learn web development online and encourage other techies to stop by and work on their projects for awhile. Cost of living including food and internet is about $100. Americans get great visas to India. Check us out http://jaaga.in
i live in a small village in rural india where I'd guess the average monthly income is less than $150. So, its a poor area, but not a destitute area. People generally have water, enough to eat, and the kids all go to school. They want cars and big houses like people in the west want faster cars and bigger houses. As a whole even for people doing labor the lifestyle isn't obviously bad. They work fewer hours, are in a more natural less poluted environment and are generally less stressed by life and work than their urban counter parts. There's a perceived lack of opportunity driving people into the cities. But its a similar drive that motivates people in the states to leave relatively nice styles in the midwest to move to Los Angeles or San Francisco to chase a dream even if it means working long hours in a restaurant and living in a crowded apartment.
One reason I think this theme resonates here is that software people are location independent in a way few other industries are. If you can work from anywhere being somewhere where your core living expenses are $200 makes sense. Siver's questions becomes real - what then ?
