| The economic scesucs of monasticism was a problem. It developed a class structure of choir monks, lay brothers, serfs and lay employees. Monasteries did become richer than other estates. So the value of poverty can become a fiction, with the choir monks having a high standard of living Yes, I can see that, though many probably were individually poor in the sense of not actually owning things; the community as a whole was wealthy. It does get complex, doesn't it? From what I've read, most monasteries interacted to some extent with the local communities, which suggests [but does not prove] that they weren't totally self-sufficient.Perhaps more on point to this discussion, though, is that it would be difficult to impossible for most monasteries today to actually produce all that they needed to live, and still be able to devote their time primarily to prayer. As you say, farming is hard, risky work, and the communities these days are generally small. The hard' part probably wouldn't be too much of a problem, but the risky' element could threaten the survival of the community. And, even assuming that they don't mind the hard' part, there is only so much that a given size group can do. The sheer volume of work can make farming prohibitive.It only seems practical for the monks to find work they can do to earn the money they need while still keeping the primary focus on prayer. And many seem to be making food products, which is at least sort of
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