I don't mean to criticize you, because I have the same dream. You can certainly do that yourself, but your country would still run on phoned-in people--the same way that the hobbits and Tom Bombadil relied on Gondor.

When you say "we survived without it, we can do it again", you're implying that everyone can do it. But "we" still need to solve several major problems:

- National defense

- Fuel

- Power

- Medicine

- Food

- Construction

- Textiles

The "retreat to a small town" hasn't really ever worked as a large-scale model. Small towns in Europe were still backed up by national militaries, as were small towns in the U.S. There has to be some large-scale, militaristically competitive infrastructure in place before a calm, slow existence could return to a meaningful fraction of the population.

Perhaps a solution to that is to have everyone serve X number of years in the nation-scale defensive behemoth, and, after they're done, they can retreat to the good life. That's actually how military service is being organized in countries which are at a significant threat (e.g. Israel).

In broader context, we can have everyone say working 20 years in modern, corporate world, so that it does not crumble and we still get to enjoy its benefits, and then retiring to quiet life. It's what people some people with higher salaries are already doing (the FIRE movement), and with more wealth in the economy it would be available to everyone.