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Many older Americans are living a desperate, nomadic life
Market Watch ^ | Nov 7, 2017 | RICHARD EISENBERG

Posted on 11/10/2017 7:15:03 AM PST by huldah1776

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.

The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s AMZN, -0.24% “CamperForce,” seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are “people who never imagined being nomads.” Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, “felt they’d spent too long losing a rigged game.” Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They’re downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: amazon; homeless; maga; obamalegacy; retirement
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To: sparklite2

Heh, heh. Very, very good. Very.


121 posted on 11/10/2017 11:31:47 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: dfwgator
gifs website
122 posted on 11/10/2017 11:35:49 AM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: Yaelle

“And in this state almost all the food banks, charities, and Ebt cards / welfare go to people WHO DONT BELONG IN THIS COUNTRY. “

I volunteered with an OC food bank a couple of years ago and it sure seemed like the majority of those waiting in line weren’t fluent in English.

This was a private sector food bank but it’s just as bad in gov’t agencies where no one is allowed to ask if you are here legally.


123 posted on 11/10/2017 11:35:51 AM PST by Pelham
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To: ETL


I loved Packards.  A 1955 Packard Caribbean like the one above was the
first car I ever saw that used the color scheme that was so wildly popular
at the time --- pink and black. And the car's styling was stunning.

124 posted on 11/10/2017 11:36:07 AM PST by sparklite2 (-)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Thanks!


125 posted on 11/10/2017 11:38:18 AM PST by sparklite2 (-)
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To: dfwgator
Image result for star trek hippies gif

Image result for star trek hippies

Related image

126 posted on 11/10/2017 11:39:07 AM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: sparklite2
Beautiful car! Reminds me of the '56 Crown Victoria...

Image result for 1956 Crown Victoria

Related image

127 posted on 11/10/2017 11:42:56 AM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: cherry

A colleague of mine (energy professional) sold the house around 1980, bought a sailboat, packed the wife and three kids aboard, and sailed the world for a couple of years. They would put in port somewhere and he would do something remote consulting work before pressing on. This was pre-internet, pre-email days, mind you, so it was telex and fax! He is the only guy I know who had the courage to do it.


128 posted on 11/10/2017 11:43:12 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ETL

That’s just a solar-powered low wattage fan. They’d be better served turning it around and blowing hot air out of the interior in my opinion. Not parking in the sun in the first place would be an excellent start, shaded parking spots are the first to go in hot sunny regions, rather than the closest parking spots. You see the cars and trucks scattered across the parking lot huddled around landscaped islands with trees with a barren desert of asphalt in between, lol.


129 posted on 11/10/2017 11:44:07 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Responsibility2nd; Wilhelm Tell

Well, I am about to be divorced. My future ex-wife has shown zero interest in me for over 5 years; barely talking about the kids, bills, whatever, during that time. I’d rather be alone for the right reasons, than be with someone for the wrong reasons.


130 posted on 11/10/2017 11:49:58 AM PST by ro_dreaming (Chesterton, 'Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It's been found hard and not tried')
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To: Ted Grant

I hope it works out for you, but if when you get over 50 people start looking at you different when you come looking for a job. Think about the Obama years. How many times were we told by HR types “WE don’t even consider resumes from people who have been laid off.”


131 posted on 11/10/2017 11:51:37 AM PST by ichabod1 (Smoke does not mean fire when someone threw a smoke grenade.)
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To: ETL

A ‘56 Crown Vic would’ve made a fine-looking Ranchero too, but they didn’t come out with one until ‘57. Just crop the roof to follow the chrome bar running up and over the roof, then extend the “bed” after removing the trunk and putting a bed liner of some sort in there. Surprised nobody has done that, it would look very natural. A neighbor in my teen years collected Crown Vics, he had several with the green plexiglass roof section, even a ‘54 on the older body style. The black ‘56 with two tone black and white interior was the prettiest, but he could only drive it in winter, too hot any other time, especially with the plexiglass roof. No A/C.


132 posted on 11/10/2017 11:52:02 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Es verdad mi hijo.


133 posted on 11/10/2017 11:55:34 AM PST by HotHunt
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To: RegulatorCountry
That’s just a solar-powered low wattage fan.

Yes, I know. I mentioned that in the next post.

134 posted on 11/10/2017 12:07:58 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: ro_dreaming

She could just be clinically depressed, not showing interest in anything, including the kids and bills.


135 posted on 11/10/2017 12:09:48 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: dfwgator
The Who
"Goin' Mobile"

I'm goin' home
And when I wanna go home
I'm goin' mobile
Well, I'm gonna find a home
And we'll see how it feels
Goin' mobile
Keep me movin'

I can pull up by the curb
I can make it on the road
Goin' mobile
I can stop in any street
And talk with people that we meet
Goin' mobile
Keep me movin'

Out in the woods
Or in the city
It's all the same to me
When I'm drivin' free, the world's my home
When I'm mobile

Hee, hoo!
beep beep!

Play the tape machine
Make the toast and tea
When I'm mobile


Well I can lay in bed
With only highway ahead
When I'm mobile
Keep me movin'

Keep me movin'
Over 50
Keep me groovin'
Just a hippie gypsy

Come on move now
Movin'
Keep me movin', yeah

Keep me movin', groovin', groovin', yeah
Movin', Yeah
Mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile, ...

I don't care about pollution
I'm an air-conditioned gypsy
That's my solution
Watch the police and the tax man miss me
I'm mobile
Oooooh, yeah, hee!

Mobile, mobile, mobile yeah

136 posted on 11/10/2017 12:13:41 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Nukes. See my FR page)
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To: albie
She owns a home with a fresh 30 year mortgage and she’s 66.

How does one end up with a new 30 year mortgage at age 66?

137 posted on 11/10/2017 12:16:03 PM PST by johniegrad
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To: ETL

Remember the Skyliner?  Hard top convertible that was marginally more
popular than the Edsel, which was described as an Oldsmobile sucking on a lemon.  LOL
But what I'd really like to have is ...



                    ...a Chrysler gas turbine.

138 posted on 11/10/2017 12:16:45 PM PST by sparklite2 (-)
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To: ichabod1

Oh, I know. Thanks! Worst comes to work I can always get a gig in a document review sweatshop, bang out 2000 hours and make a decent living.


139 posted on 11/10/2017 12:21:47 PM PST by Ted Grant
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To: johniegrad

Age doesn’t matter. If the mortgage isn’t paid, the lender gets the house. It’s just money...


140 posted on 11/10/2017 12:28:26 PM PST by sparklite2 (-)
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