But, on a side note, lets keep importing more and more people from the 3rd world and other places to take jobs. I'm sure these people will welcome them with open arms.
“I am NOMAD.” I miss Star Trek, Seinfeld and Monty Python references on FR.
I would think if you had some sort of skills and education, you could get better jobs than this.
I am a well-off retiree, but if I needed to work and make money, I would get an EA and do tax returns, or something along those lines.
America’s material wealth is still a very recent phenomenon, and while everyone enjoys a life-standard unimaginable 100 years ago (even the poorest Americans have TV, cell phones, air conditioning, etc...) there are many people who simply don’t save, or make other choices.
I got laid off FIVE times after being with one company 22 years. I decided to take some additional personal risk and go for bigger rewards, so I joined a succession of smaller and medium size younger companies. Most startups don't make it and I have a knack of choosing them.
I learned resilience and tenacity. When you get laid off, you exercise your network and find new work. You constantly keep your skills up to date and learn new things. Always be ready to begin job searching again.
If you are lazy, poorly educated, and not too bright, you might wind up in a camper. Life has never been easy. These liberal writers seem to think everybody is owed a cushy lifestyle for little effort or output. Sorry, life doesn't work that way.
Amazon fulfillment workers are worked like dogs. Bezos is a typical liberal. Way left of Center on how you should behave until it affects him then way right of center
Equal outcomes not guaranteed.
bmp
We have a friend who was an engineer and built his own beautiful house on several acres. He and his wife raised wonderful gardens and even built a pond where they raised fish. Unfortunately, they had nearly all of their retirement savings in General Motors bonds which they believed were a very safe investment.
They of course lost all of their retirement savings and eventually their home and property. They even had to take their dog to an animal shelter. All they were left with was their old mini-van and what they could fit it in it. They adopted the nomadic life style that has been described here, working seasonally for Amazon and taking whatever other hob opportunities that they can find.
We have now lost touch with them, but the entire situation has been very sad. A lot of people these days have forgotten the way that the Obama administration interfered in the GM bankruptcy process and basically completely screwed over the bondholders to assist in a complete bailout of the unions who were largely responsible for bringing GM to its knees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502135.html
We will see a huge indigent geriatric population in the hear future. They will be a pitiful burden to society or they will die terribly.
In the past, before real retirement, we just worked until we died or depended on the family to take care of us in our old age. Think Grandpa Walton. Now the Boomers have been thrown to the wolves and most did not have a clue how to manage retirement, how much it actually would take or have the knowledge to not be bilked by the Wall Street Wolves that the new frontier of 401Ks would make even richer. The power of collective bargaining by powerful pension funds disappeared and in a strategy of divide and conquer the Financial Fiends have figured out how to harvest huge amounts of pension savings.
“We saw in the 1980s a shift from pensions to 401(k)s; that was a raw deal for workers. These retirement plans were marketed as an instrument of financial freedom, but they were really transferring risk from the shoulder of the employers to the backs of the workers.”
Boomers are at the vanguard of this new scheme and there is no guarantee for any of them that it will work at all. Risk of longevity and uncertainty of withdrawal rates owing to the ups and downs of the investments has been moved from the many to the individual. There is no provision for spreading of risk. Pension schemes have been available in other countries for quite some time. These do spread risk but are illegal in the United States. I wonder why?
Boomers were often cast aside in the Great Recession as the most expensive employees with the greatest medical liabilities. The worker shortage that is coming will not help them. They will be too old and too feeble to participate.
It’s a mixed bag. Lots of retiree full time RVers out there that have plenty of money and simply workcamp on the side. Many own RVs that cost as much as any three bedroom home. Others just like to live a simple life on their terms.
Amazon is only one of thousands of work camping job venues. Most simply involve work at private and public RV parks.
Quite a number of the down and out variety are fleeing high cost of living states like California. Most of those wander between the BLM lands in Arizona and Rocky Mountain states season to season.
Most choose the lifestyle. Only a few are truly forced into it.
Stay out of debt. Go with Dave Ramsey
https://www.wired.com/story/meet-camperforce-amazons-nomadic-retiree-army/
In January we camped on BLM land, it was $40 for 2 weeks but my husband said you could buy a yearly pass for around $75. At that campground you had access to dumping, trash disposal and fresh water for that fee. There was a pay shower. So you could live for a very small amount.
I’m presently designing chips for Samsung in San Diego and living in my newer model 37 foot 5th wheel in a campground ... and loving it. I am 100 feet from the ocean and a beach. I have cable and internet and all other utilities paid for in the rent. The rent is one third of what the apartments are going for around here. My neighbors are pretty much the same type of older people who work various professions ... like teaching, medical, engineering etc. The life style is not for just anyone and requires a bit of getting used to ... but I’ve been doing it since October and am enjoying it. Two things that I don’t like ... first I’m living in Kalifornistan and I have run into some really STUPID liberals here. Second, I had to leave all (wink) of my fire arms in Arizona with Ms Clamper.
I hate using govt to force people to do actions but since they tax you on income how about having young workers 20’s automatically enrolled in a retirement savings plan even in small amounts. A few decades of compounding interest will grow the account and result in a nice nest egg at retirement. Disciplined and consistent saving is the key over the long term.
Did you ever give a thought that just maybe they did like it?
I'm not one to play the classwarfare crap
Then don't play it......
If you think an Amazon warehouse is such a hellish place, you should spend a summer in an automotive stamping plant working a 10 or 12 hour shift trying to maintain production quota on a draw die for the Ford van roof or the Lincoln Navigator side body panel or work in a foundry.
I can think of a number of shitty jobs I pulled at my plant during my 35 year career with them and working for Amazon sounds like a piece of cake.......At least it's clean, quiet and you don't have to wash soot out of your nose and oil out of your hair and off your body as soon as you get home.
And we had 35 year + seniority guys in their 60's and early 70's doing that crap their entire career with the company..
The obama legacy.
One other question, is this part of the newly discovered Homeless Epidemic that surfaced just after a Republican was Elected POTUS?
Here are a couple of things to consider:
*If they were wiped out in the 2008 recession, they were too heavily invested in stocks for their age. No reasonable 401(k) system would have been “wiped out.” If the people were greedy, they would have gotten beaten up.
*Their homes were foreclosed. At near retirement age no one should be over extended on their home. Again, bad planning.
* Living on $1000 a month? That’s social security for someone that hardly paid into the system. I doubt that umber is accurate.
People make choices. To end up like this story describes, these folks made one bad decision after another.