[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

[Spok]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[Gamecock]

Funny, I can't see any well nourished kids here...

[annyokie]

The children are well fed and well clothed. They have a 5 year old car.

So what? Maybe their circumstances changed drastically in the last year. My kids are eligable for free lunches due to my changed economic circumstances.

[I got the rope]

I was traveling outside of San Salvador, El Salvador, once...I saw people with kids living in a garbage dump. It was the saddest, most pathetic site I have ever seen. They were living in makeshift shacks of wood, cardboard, leaves and sticks. The kids were picking through garbage for food. Communist/socialist are evil scum that should be wiped off the face of the earth IMHO.

[Porterville]

My thought is that people who you believe to be poor, are often a lot more wealthy than you.... A beat up car that cost 50 bucks a month for insurance, is worth a lot more to an owner than a 30 thousand dollar Mercedes with 4 1/2 years left of payments. A trailer by the beach, is worth a lot more than a 5 bedroom house in the desert.... capiche???

[FITZ]

Is your mom's pregnant friend married and working or at least with a spouse that's working? I've lived in trailer parks --- they're not necessarily for poor people. There was on couple who had a small trailer --- very nicely decorated and all, two professional incomes, no kids. I never knew what they did with all their money, maybe saving it for early retirement, maybe taking fantastic vacations. Trailer trash is a word that is used in the wrong circumstances many times ---- alot of very decent people choose to live in affordable housing.

[varon]

a trailer park strategically located in Chesterfield, an upscale suburb of St. Louis.

Doesn't say much for St. Louis if its upscale suburb is a trailer park, does it?

[LibKill]

Back in the '70s, I shared a rented trailer with a couple of my friends.

We lived very well for low-wage losers.

Every time I hear someone put down trailerparks and trailer people I see (snakehead) James Carville screaming "you troll a $100 dollar bill through a trailer park and you can come up with anything!"

In our new century the simple fact is that low-wage people can get decent housing in trailers.

If the dims don't like this fact they are invited to lick me, with their tounges if they are wise, with their fists if they are suicidal.

[Barnacle]

tell him to f*** off

I sure will... But, how do you pronounce it?

[KneelBeforeZod]

I used to work at a cable company and without fail, low income families always had a ton of "premiums" ie, HBO, Skinemax, Showtime....

[Missouri]

Where exactly in Chesterfield is this trailer park ? I've lived in St. Louis County my whole life and know that there is a county ordinance against these kind of homes ( except for one in Town and Country that was grandfathered in).

[CyberAnt]

I love mobile homes. They are complete and compact. I would buy one in a minute; as long as it isn't in tornado country.