In my experience the problem isn't really that people don't think they can do these things, it's that they don't want to. They think it's primitive... they think their better or to good for it... some have even compared it to slave labor, but my personal favorite to hear is that it's "uncivilized". I find it a bit ironic though that these are the same type of people who claim superiority over all other life due to our advanced intelligence, yet (most of) us dumb humans are the only ones who don't have even the most basic of survival skills. The only species that's going to care when/if the power goes out is humans.

Now on the other side of that for those of us who ARE willing and able to live more... responsibly let say... here in the US we run into all sorts of legal trouble in trying to do so. Food, water and shelter are obviously the 3 most basics. Build a shelter in the woods somewhere and your trespassing... so your immediately subjected to entering into debt contracts and taxed just for a place to stand. Build your shelter on that land you need a PERMIT (license to do something that is otherwise ILLEGAL) which cost money. Want to hunt? Trap? Fish? PERMIT! PERMIT! PERMIT! Want to put up some solar panels? Small wind turbine? PERMIT! PERMIT! How about a little hydro electric from your stream? PERMIT! Not to mention probably needing a whole environmental impact study done at your own expense. Collect rainwater... illegal! Want to have your own animals? Lots of them come with PERMITS!!! See where I'm going with all this? Now I suppose you can just try to hide as best you can, but how in the hell can anyone call that free when the simple acts of LIVING are quite literally ILLEGAL?