(NaturalNews) As state and local governments increasingly stretch themselves to the financial breaking point with free services and taxpayer-supported benefits, in addition to offering their normal services as well, they have become even more reliant on citizen participation in the mainstream.

In short, governments need all the tax money and revenues they can get, and they get them when citizens remain part of “the system.”

That’s why it is becoming more and more risky for Americans who choose to live their lives “off the grid,” so to speak; anyone who does reduces cash flow to state and local governments that rely on every dollar they can get in order to stay afloat.

This phenomenon came to a head recently with one couple living in Huntsville, Alabama; the city has forbidden them from living off the grid, as they have attempted to do, and has threatened them with jail if they refuse to jump back in line.

‘100 percent self-sustaining’ is now a crime in some cities

As reported by the Activist Post, Tyler Truitt, a veteran of the U.S. military, found it ironic that he was forced to answer for his attempt to live off the grid to a judge at city hall.

“I just don’t see how we’re hurting anyone by being here,” he told Activist Post.

As the Post further reported:

Truitt and his girlfriend Soraya Hamar are within Huntsville city limits but lived self-sufficiently without city utilities. The city officials said that’s simply not allowed and filed a lawsuit. They are claiming care for the couple’s safety – however, the couple are not without utility comforts, but have found a way to provide for themselves without the city services.

They live on their own volition and devices 100 percent; they have homemade utilities such as solar panels and they collect rainwater for their water use, among other assets. But city officials have classified their dwelling as a trailer and, well, trailers aren’t permitted inside the city limits.

“We live out here off the grid, 100 percent self-sustaining,” Truitt told local news station WAFF 48. “So I basically made all my utilities: I have my solar panels, I have my rainwater collection and stuff.”

In addition, the city has condemned his house by claiming that it violated safety requirements because it did not have accommodations for water and power hook-up. The city has threatened the couple with arrest for trespassing (on their own land) if they come back on the property.

The property is paid for, and Truitt has said that he may risk arrest to fight for his rights to be there in court.

‘Property rights are human rights’

“You have to stand up for what you believe in,” he told WAFF. “They could come out here today if they wanted to and take us to jail for trespassing if that’s what they want to call it and, you know, that’d be fine with me. I’ll still come back the next day and the next day and the next day because it’s my home and because I live here. Where else am I supposed to go really?”

“I took an oath that I would support and defend the Constitution and the freedoms that entails, and I really feel like those are being trampled upon,” he stated.

Private property rights are a fundamental American liberty dating back to the founding of the country. As noted by conservative economist and syndicated columnist Walter Williams, property rights “are a Fundamental Human Right” as well.

“So where do property rights come in? Property rights are human rights to use economic goods and services. Private property rights contain your right to use, transfer, trade and exclude others from use of property deemed yours. The supposition that there’s a conflict or difference between human rights to use property and civil rights is bogus and misguided,” he wrote in a 2005 column.

Increasingly, however, governments around the country are claiming that they have more rights than individual property owners.