No you technically couldn't. Land isn't free.
So you’ve answered your own question, “why do we pay to live on earth”. It’s because that idea is a human construct. We know it wasn’t originally like that. Humans live communally. That saying “it takes a village..” yeah, that’s what it took at one point.
We had roles; women tended to the village; upkeep, raising children, cooking, gardening etc (it’s interesting that because of women and gardening, it’s thought that this is where their extreme fear of reptiles/insects came into play and now it’s almost inherent fear)
anyway, men had the role of hunter/gatherer, protecting, building etc
so I assume this is where your question was supposed to lead…why did we go from that to what we are today? Communal societies grew, the bigger it became the more order/structure was needed.
also, you didn’t have everything in one area, so trading was necessary and paved the road to “paying to live on earth”….Spices coffee, chocolate, precious metals/jewels/gems etc were among the first forms of currency. As humans continues to grow/expand they began conquering land.. eventually we landed on coins for buying/selling…then paper money.
this is just teh gist of what I gather from history and reading or whatever. But now it’s apart of normal life… (thank the Romans for taxes)
now you essentially could live without that…ypu Can absolutely live off the land, off the grid (hence the term) and not worry about the govt. Many ppl actually do do this. Yeah, the govt could seize and blah blah blah but they typically don’t… you would have to be stealing power/water from govt sources. If you’re strictly living off the land (and there’s an insane amount of land that the govt doesn’t own or occupy) then it’s possible to escape “paying the earth”
but that comes down to how much you’re willing to fully sacrifice and we are such a comfortable society where we are that we are fully content with “paying“ regardless od how much we complain…
