My history is terrible so sorry if this question doesn't make sense. During the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the Americas when there were terrible working conditions did anyone go back to nature to live off the land instead of submitting themselves to horrible conditions?
Not terribly certain about "going back to," but I can certainly say that Argentina definitely had a rough time after the early 1900's.
Their logic was, "Why spend lots of money on stuff that might not work, rather than just pouring out cash cows that have always worked for centuries?" Turns out, because that stuff did work.