Another common criticism is that enduring the financial privations of a seminary education is somehow a spiritual obligation.

FORBES: Bursting The Seminary Bubble, Part II

This holds that Britain is an organic nation, with a definite identity, lashed together by hundreds of years of shared customs, privations, wars and culture.

ECONOMIST: English nationalism: Identity crisis | The

Six million people had no access to an inside toilet, and seven million had no hot water, and most of these privations had nothing to do with the war.

WSJ: Social Media

Individuals, families and communities pitted courage, determination and resourcefulness against all manner of obstacles, privations and dangers: inhospitable terrain crossings, brutal weather, unrelenting hunger, ravaging diseases and hostile encounters in lawless lands.

FORBES: In Reflection, With Resolve, Rediscovering American Exceptionalism

Despite the privations that come with squatting in buildings that often have no electricity or running water, Kern says she would do it again -- although she wants to try out the many other alternative lifestyles out there first.

CNN: Making a 'squat' a home

Then there are the boats based in Northern Ireland, often staffed with diligent, sober Filipinos taking advantage of a loophole in the visa system, who cope with the privations of life at sea better than the average Scot.

ECONOMIST: Fishing in Scotland