Imagine that you have offended somehow the powers that be. Instead of wasting prison space, you have been put under house arrest. You may not leave your house. Your garden, if any, is forbidden too. You can order food, watch TV, use the internet, telephone, have visitors, etc. You just can’t leave the house.
Could you cope? How would you earn your living?
I’m not sure I could cope. I’m not the greatest explorer, but I do go out, and I’d miss that sorely. And I don’t know how I’d earn a living.
If the clickbait and spambots are to be trusted, maybe I could ask the Local Mom how she earned Up To $50,000 A Month Or More Working For Google From Home. WRT coping: while I’m more of a homebody than I’d like to admit, I would probably start going a little crazy after a week or two.
I’m retired, so only about one step removed from house arrest anyway. 
No. I gotta go skiing, shopping for dinner and my garage is detached enough that I couldn’t hang out there.
But I’d prefer it to jail.
I could “cope” in that I’d be happier than I would be in jail so I’d better suck it up. I wouldn’t be happy or comfortable with it. I’m all for puttering on the internet or watching TV but, by the end of a weekend, I’m looking for an excuse to hit the store or something just to get out for a few. Still, it beats prison.
It never occurred to me that I’d need to earn a living under house arrest (not that it comes up often for me). I don’t suppose some justice organization wants to pay a political prisoner’s mortgage and pizza bills, huh?
It would beat prison.
For how long? Once you specify this, I can answer the question.
It would be miles better than jail, but still depressing.
For some people, that’s basically an ideal set-up.
Have no idea how I would earn a living, but I think I might finally get my house cleaned up and the junk moved out.
Years.
Remember that no one is paying you and you still have to feed yourself, pay bills, etc.
Bad Broomstick, bad!
Assuming my wife can go shopping and go to the library, and that I can somehow get medical attention, I could last for years.
I’m just about to retire, so that’s no problem. I’ve got enough unread books to last me a decade. I’ve got Netflix. I wouldn’t choose it, but it sure would beat prison. And it would save me money by making it impossible to travel.
As long as I had internet I assume in some matter of time I would become an uber player at one or several mmorpgs. A very frustrated,short-tempered, bitchy uber-player.
I would certainly stay entertained with books, music, TV, the internet and my art supplies. With that said, not being able to ride my scooter or experience nature in any way, would be excruciatingly painful. I would eventually (probably rather quickly) get VERY cranky and depressed. It would be great to be able to have visitors, I suppose. But would they want to visit me in the state of mind that weeks, months and years of this would leave me in?
Ditto.
Can’t just be just “Shit Heads Keeping An ‘Eye’ On You Til The End of Time”.
That justifies Homicide, and no court in the land would convict you.
Well, aside from the fact that I’m single and would have no way to pay my bills and buy food (is it still house arrest if you lose your house?), I’d be just fine with it. Ideally, I’d have access to the backyard, though.
Yes, I could do this, and I would come out far better than in prison.
I could probably keep my current job – we’re an IT company, so if the Internet is good, I’m golden. I can have groceries delivered easily, and there’s Amazon. There’s even a local mobile vet, so all fronts are covered.
I’d also save a good amount of cash by not having to keep up car payments/gas/insurance/upkeep. Enough to bring in a couple of male prostitutes! Party!
Earning a living is the easy part. I have a few cottage-industry-like skills I could make a fair income from and have in the past. But I would need to move to a different house first. These walls and me just never got along very well.
I already have a work-at-home job. I also have two small children. About the only time I leave the house as it is, is to take the kids to school or go grocery shopping. Sometimes I go out for lunch.
I suppose I could get by never leaving the house. Tons of books I haven’t read yet; internet; order supplies online. But…god, it would destroy my mind. After a couple days of not leaving the house, I’m about to go off the rails. As others have said, I’m sure it would be vastly preferable to prison, but still a pretty crummy life.
Don’t know if I’d notice.
I haven’t been outside my house since Wednesday afternoon anyway.
Not sure how well I would hold up.
Food might be a problem. No restaurant delivery in my part of the island - but I would get on the phone and beg the Italian restaurant down the road to work something out. Might have to work out a deal with one of the hotel employees to drop off dinner on their way home.
The Australian and Indian-Chinese fusion places already provide a service to pick up diners from the nearby hotels, so they are driving right past my house a few times each night. I think I could work out a delivery option from them.
As for providing my own food, if I am allowed to the boundaries of my property then I would cast out some fishing lines and hope for some seafood. Gardening might not work. Sandy soil and salt everywhere. Coconuts only go so far.
And there is a guy who offers a service to do grocery shopping for tourists to stock their vacation homes before they arrive. I suppose I could pay him to do my shopping, but he charges quite a bit for his service.
I’ve had an idea for an idea for an internet business for some time now and would have to give it my full effort to try to make a living. But I would need someone to assist, as the business idea would require having someone taking pictures around the island on a regular basis. If I couldn’t make this work I would be in trouble financially.
I would have to depend upon the visiting nurses from the Health Services Administration for medical care. Unless I have an accident requiring more complicated treatment then this should suffice.
In reality a part of my job is to monitor persons placed on an electronic monitoring program. Most are free to leave their homes during the day, but a few are on 24/7 restriction. And the large majority of those on 24/7 restriction are fully compliant. So it can be done.
But there are common sense exceptions where such persons can leave their home for genuine emergencies (house is on fire!), necessary medical treatment (scheduled appointments and/or emergency transport as need determined by ambulance crew consulting with doctors at A&E), and to go to the court for their legal proceedings.