Posted on 03/10/2018 7:11:58 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at tiny.iavian.net ...
Did they point out that debt is not really wealth and freedom?
Oh, who am I kidding?
I find it hard to believe people forget that most people in America before the 1920s and socialist-led unions and socialist politicians courting the womens votes, created welfare government, lived lives like this. seasonal work. went to places where there was work. had jobs that had little other benefits. didnt have cushy retirement plans, because basically no one retired because they couldn’t. It was called “life”.
These people are working. They are doing what they can. Not everyoene can collect a hundred grand paycheck for doing unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
These people also do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from college they have to pay back hoping to get a job in their career field, or purchase masively expensive personal liability insurance in case they are sued doing their highly skilled work.
Much of the rest of the world still lives “life” this way.
Since I RV, I have seen this article pop up on occasion. There is a small minority that does go from job to job and paycheck to paycheck. But then there are a lot more of them that work hard, then play hard. They actually choose this lifestyle with little responsibility and a vagabond attitude.
This article paints the RV lifestyle as one where the individual is homeless. Many of us do have an S & B (stick and brick) home in addition to our RVs. And for those of you that have never seen the inside of an RV, the new ones are more like a luxury apartment than those RVs from the past. And even some of the older ones are being rehabbed to a point of beauty.
And don’t even get me started on the motorhomes. Some of the motorhomes that are coming off the assembly lines cost over a half a million dollars to custom models that run up to and over 2 million.
Medical bills wiped us out and a chronic medical condition kept us underwater for a decade. My long term plan? Drop dead before I have to retire and leave my husband a big fat life insurance policy he can blow on hookers in Vegas. Knowing him, though, he will continue to live a frugal godly life and save as much of it as possible for our children.
Other than the SJW You helped?
I know a few. They say they like the lifestyle.
They called it,
Funemployment!
I’m 65. My plan is to keep working, as well as my wife, as long as We are physically able to do so. We sold our house. At this point my wife and I are renting and investing my entire paycheck in SPDR stocks. We started late in life. But even so, our money is growing rapidly. That’s our plan. Work. And an added benefit is it keeps you in the game. When you do retire, of course then you can start a new game.
Forgotten derelicts of the Obamunist economy, and the destruction by the Democrats of America’s white middle class over the last 40+ years.
Amen to that.
We did have a hitch almost break on I - 10 (very rough) found the break in the parking lot of the trailer park when I unhitched the truck. Wow, this was an inch thick bolt that cracked into two pieces.
Had lots of things broke and had to take the new trailer back to the factory when we discovered that the waste tanks pipes were cracked by the factory and started leaking. (And made us very bad neighbors for a while). This was fixed for free.
Sounds like freedom, what are they complaining about? Or is some MSM bot just complaining on their behalf?
I personally hope to live a nomadic life when I retire! Too much of the country to see to just stay in 1 place!
That is the absolute truth. I know many, many RVers and I am one myself. The vast majority are financially secure, own property (or properties) and choose to enjoy a fun lifestyle, whether it's for a weekend getaway where you can take your dogs along too, or people who are contractors who have work in a particular area and don't want to live in hotels.
Another newsflash: I would wager that over 90% of full-time RVers are conservatives, who also voted for President Trump.
with property tax the huge hidden burden to home owners, I can see how many would want to just wander about and see the country, earning a few bucks here and there....
I don’t understand why nomadic RVers, or people who do not wish to live in large home/2 car garage, once retired, is so bad.
I think about it often, as I have large home, and I am tired of the work/expense, and cleaning, etc. I just don’t like towing anything....
The. Get a class A or class C! No towing! And if you have to drive around once you get somewhere, small car rentals are cheap!
Let’s see. They live part of the year in a $150,000 patio home in Voyager RV Park in Tucson. They travel most of the year in their $300,000+ Winnebago Vectra motorhome.
Some summers they work for Holland America Cruise Lines in Fairbanks, AK. Others they spend working at the Old Faithful Gift Shop in Yellowstone. And sometimes they workamp at an upscale RV park on the Washington coast. In the fall they’re in Fernley, NV working for Amazon. And of course often they just travel in their coach seeing the country.
They do this because they like to keep busy and occupied.
For our part, my wife and I workamped for 5 months in Fairbanks, AK, and for the last 6 years we’ve done oil field gate guarding in South and East Texas. And the rest of the year we also travel in our motorhome.
Last year we spent 5 months making a big loop out west hitting Las Cruces, Tucson, Apache Junction, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Bend, OR, Coeur d’Alene, ID, Rapid City, SD, North Platte, NE, Oklahoma City, and then back to Houston.
We’re in our early 70’s and have been doing this for 11 years now.
We work on the road because we like it.
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