Sounds like a lot of poor life choices.
In her powerful new book, “Nomadland,” award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — “surviving America in the twenty-first century.” Not quite homeless, they are “houseless,” living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits.
___________________________________________
Bull Cheese.
I know plenty of successful people who actively planned for such a life.
Retirement life could be a lot worse than this.
Inflation is so high that many more will be in this situation in the future. And their kids are too strapped to help.
Wife and I were seeing this lifestyle in our future a few years ago. We were considering moving to Mexico. Thank God we found a way to avoid it.
“Living in a van, down by the river…”
Looking at the economics of this it is tough to understand why this would be preferable to taking a low wage but consistent job or jobs combining Walmart, 7/11, McDonalds, etc. The McDonalds near me where I buy coffee (and very rarely anything else) seems to prefer these older, reliable workers who can communicate in the native language.
I would guess that some in that age group grew up expecting secure lifetime employment at a single company and did not realize until too late that times had changed.
I’ll bet most voted for Obama, and they embraced the
Global society. They got what they wanted.
I can imagine a 50 year old white man, getting laid off from his professional job. He can only find work as a clerk or something at near minimum wage. Maybe he gets a divorce or suffers health problems over the pressure, and there goes his life’s savings. Maybe his biggest hope now is when he can collect Social Security and work only part-time. And maybe move into a bigger trailer - this time, one that has hot water in the shower. It does happen sometimes where someone leads a responsible life but bad things happen and it has a cascading effect.
I work part time at an auto auction that sells hundreds of cars a week. A number of these cars come in as repoes and it is obvious by what is found inside that someone has been LIVING in the vehicle. In most cases these are four door sedans, most are not living in large vans or RVs. Sometimes there are blankets, clothing, empty food containers etc so there is no doubt that it has been home for someone for a while. There are many millions in this country who have no possibility of making a living without government assistance. Take away all the “food stamps” and other programs and the situation would be worse than the thirties.
“I used to joke that I would be a bag lady someday. Still possible but I can see this having happened to many. They should say they are illegal immigrants. “
We certainly don’t have any problem taking care of millions of third world parasites crowding into our country.
I have a client that is barely scraping by on SS and has about 70k in an IRA. She owns a home with a fresh 30 year mortgage and she’s 66. She told me she wants to sell her home because she’s desperate for money.
I asked her why she wasn’t working. I see a lot of people over 70 bagging groceries, as cashiers etc. She’s perfectly able. She whines that no one will hire her. Some people just beg for misery.
Help me out. What numbers are we talking about.
Many older Americans dumpster dive, but I bet it’s not wide-spread.
Many older Americans have Herpes and halitosis, but I’m not sure it makes it a national crisis.
I mean no disrespect for the people trapped in this lifestyle, but I hate articles that make a problem seem like a national crisis.
Most people I know who are old and broke just made some really poor decisions, some were due to greed.
Like cashing in their 401k because the money was just “sitting there”. Or retiring too early because they could. Or trading their retirement savings for an RV. My mother blew through half a million $ in 22 years, just buying books and clothes and supporting my sibling.
That is nothing new. There have always been nomadic peoples.
In the 1960s and 1970s [and for decades before and probably still today] in agricultural areas, nomadic people followed the harvest routes. They worked in the fields to harvest crops. When a field was cleared, they moved to the next. When an area or region was cleared, the moved to the next.
It was, and probably still is, a way of life for many in ‘fly-over-land’.
Cry me a river. Many of them move because the damn property taxes and cost of living got so high in places like San Francisco and Austin that it was cheaper to buy an RV and escape. They have limited funds for retirement, but what they have will last longer if they don’t have to pay their local and country taxes for the privilege of living in their homes.
No one owns property in America. You can pay every dime of your mortgage off, but if you fall into arrears on your property taxes due to job loss or medical expenses, the county will seize your home and auction it off to someone with connections. This happened over a million times during the Obama years, and we never read a sad story about it then.
Why yes, there IS a Republican in the Whitehouse.
It’s a mixed bag. For many, it’s a choice to be unchained from a desk and reduce the cost of living. Lots of RVers who work/travel full time. Lots of retirees who simply RV full time with a pension income and supplement with part time workcamper income. For some, it’s a necessity. There are quite a few Kalifornia refugees who simply can’t afford to live there anymore and live in their RVs in the deserts of Arizona and Nevada on a meager income.