The Trailer Park: The Shocking Reality

Yours Truly | September 19, 2003 | Yours Truly

[El Conservador]

The story is this:

My mom and I were visiting this Mexican friend of hers (legal resident, if you ask) who is pregnant, and this lady lives in a trailer park strategically located in Chesterfield, an upscale suburb of St. Louis.

The leftists always rant and rave about how the "poor" are oppressed here in the "evil American empire", but the reality is very different:

-Half of the trailers sported a satellite dish, the other half have digital cable with HBO and Cinemax.

-None, and I say none, of the cars at the park, looked like it was more than 5 years old, and most of them were spanking new SUVs.

-The children looked well fed, and they were well clothed, and riding bikes which looked pricey.

So the next time an unwashed communist "poor people activist" tells you about horror stories about poverty in America, please, tell him to f*** off and tell him/her most people around the world would kill to be "poor" in America.

[El Conservador]

Share your thoughts!!!

[xrp]

I understand the article, especially when I walk out of the grocery store and see the woman getting into a brand new car...the same woman who was in front of me in the grocery line, with gold teeth, a cell phone -- and using food stamps or the EBT card.

[zeromus]

My thoughts are that I'm not sure that living in a trailer home is sufficient to qualify you as poor

[PleaseNoMore]

What is an EBT card and how do you know that someone is using one?

[LasVegasMac]

with gold teeth

That's her cash reserve, dummy!

LVM

[PleaseNoMore]

What is an EBT card? How do you know if someone is using one?

[El Conservador]

The notion of trailer park almost always evokes images of destitute people living in abject poverty, so I just wanted to dispel such images.

[Spok]

Only in America can the poor suffer from both hunger and obesity at the same time.

[xrp]

An EBT card (here in Georgia) is essentially a food stamp credit card. The reason for them being issued in Georgia is that it is "too embarrassing" to use actual food stamps.

You know if someone is using them because they have to swipe them through the credit card/debit card machine.

[socal_parrot]

My thoughts are that I'm not sure that living in a trailer home is sufficient to qualify you as poor My thoughts also. Better to live in a trailer park and be able to afford nice things for yourself and your family than to become strapped to a mortgage you can't afford and starve.

There is a trailer park near my house that is right across Pacific Coast Highway from the beach. There is a waiting list to live there. It's all relative.

[Ramius]

Most of "the poor" in America would be among the wealthy if they had the same lifestyle in any *truly* poor country in the world. Only in America can you be considered "poor" and have a place to live, color TV, microwave oven, refrigerator and a car that runs.

[Rebelbase]

"-Half of the trailers sported a satellite dish, the other half have digital cable with HBO and Cinemax."

Over here there's a nasty set of low rent poverty apartments in a scummy part of town that has direct TV dishes clamped to the balcony railing of every unit.

[PleaseNoMore]

So, would you assume that I was using an EBT card because I swipe my card through the machine? I use my debit card, linked to my checking account, to pay for my groceries all the time. I never have cash on me anymore. I rarely see people paying with cash anymore.

Just curious. Now I am going to feel self conscious buying my groceries.

[PleaseNoMore]

Isn't that the truth.

[Alberta's Child]

I remember reading somewhere that John Mellencamp's hit song "Pink Houses" from the early 1980s was written after he took a road trip through some part of the Midwest. He felt compelled to write a song about the irony of what he witnessed -- one town after another of ugly, run-down, pastel-colored houses with brand new cars parked in front of them and satellite dishes on the roofs.

[hopespringseternal]

Half of the trailers sported a satellite dish, the other half have digital cable with HBO and Cinemax.

Yeah, it's harsh, but cable is required for being poor and trashy in America.

[PleaseNoMore]

When my husband and I were married ( young and right out of HS ) we lived in a TP. It was a nice community mainly consisting of retirees. We lived there while I was in school then continued living there until I found out that I I was pregnant with my first son. We weren't poor. We had nice cars, cable ( no sattelites then )and we had a nice manicured lawn. It was cost efficient for a young couple starting out. That was then, this is now. The same place is now a dump and the trailors are trashed and filled with immigrants. The older retirees died or moved in with families or to nursing homes and the sweet elderly owners died as well. Their money hungry son took the place over and rented to anyone and everyone. Even though the place looks "ghettoish" now, the nice cars are still there. It is common knowledge that the ones who own them sell drugs. Sad.

[sneakers]

Actually, there's a trailer park several miles from my house that is very quaint. There is a residents association and very strict rules on maintaining your home and yard. Many of the folks who live there are retired but also younger couples with children live there as well.

[wimpycat]

I'm not nosy enough to get close enough to look to see if someone is using a debit or EBT card. But I was in line behind this man and a woman who was obviously his mother one time, and he bought beer and paid with a $20, while his mom bought regular groceries and paid with food stamps. As if I wouldn't die of shame buying beer with cash right behind my mom paying for her groceries with food stamps.

You being a fellow TarHeel and all, you know as well as I do that many people who live in trailers are definitely not poor. We know that's no way to judge if someone is poor.

[Dec31,1999]

an upscale suburb of St. Louis.

I'd like to live in a trailer park in an upscale neighborhood, too! Some mobile homes are really nice!