Having had wells... The electricity isn't the least of it. These things require regular servicing. Hopefully, you aren't unlucky enough to have it back up... which happened to my mother soon after moving into a newly purchased home. You need to watch the toilet paper you use because some are better than others.
Not to mention the need for a water softener in some areas. I've lived in areas whose water smelled of rotten eggs. This same water would turn hair and white clothing and everything else an orange shade.
You're confusing wells with septic systems. Wells are where you get water (you pump it out of the ground), septic systems are how you dispose of wastewater (basically by dumping it into the ground in a concrete tank, from which it then percolates into pipes with holes in a "septic field").
You're right, septic systems can be a maintenance nightmare.
>Not to mention the need for a water softener in some areas. I've lived in areas whose water smelled of rotten eggs.
Yep, this is the other problem with well water: it frequently has sulfur in it, and is really nasty.
Yep, I've seen this with Christians: "you have mental problems because you have demons in you!" This kind of thinking is extremely common in rural America these days.
>If you aren't lucky, you may even need your own well.
Wells are pretty expensive. Sure, the water itself is free, but the electricity to run the pump is not, and even at the frequently cheaper electric rates that rural areas enjoy, it adds up.
>You'll also have to burn trash or contract a company to come take it.
When I was growing up in rural areas, the common thing was to save it all up and haul it to the dump yourself every week or so.
All in all, you make a lot of excellent points that remind me a lot of the time I've spent in rural areas.