Thanks. I'm adding this to my "long list of books I plan to read".
The plight of these aging nomads is worsening as the COVID Pandemic
flows and ebbs. While we have some Solar energy, we still rely on
propane to run our generator in order to have power 24/7. Over this
past year our energy cost has gone up approximately 50%. Food costs,
especially fresh vegies, have also increased. We had set aside money
for a 10 by 10 greenhouse, but now we'd need to hire the building
done. We invested most of our retirement savings in a piece of
property back in 2006, believing that Land would be more stable than
Wall Street. I recall my own words, "Real Estate never goes down!"
So our $108 investment might, and it's a very shaky "might", sell for
$90,000. But it dropped to a low of $68,000. The other day, out of
the blue, a realtor called asking if we planned to sell our property.
Of course it would depend on the offer, but he said he'd get with his
client and get back to us. So here we are again, poorer but no wiser.
Do we leave the money in property and continue paying taxes and fees,
or put it in some investment plan at .005% interest?
Sheesh!
Nonetheless, whatever we do, we can expect the vultures to circle
anytime they smell money.
There's a mobil park close to us, called the S K P park. It's full of
fithwheels, trailers of all sizes and campers. They have a clubhouse
and they can swim in the lake...except the water is toxic.
They winter at the S K P park, and with warmer weather in the Spring,
they head out across the country. They will be returning earlier and
earlier as gas prices rise.
As they line up to head out, I'm reminded of an old children's poem
which goes in part, "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark,
the beggars are coming to town.
Some in rags, some in tags and some in silken gowns."
Carl Jarvis
On 4/1/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There's a reason why there are no black people involved in this movement.
It's that it involves stealth parking of vehicles, and they know that
they'd
be noticed and the police would be called. There's a tiny section toward
the end of the book where the author talks about the income inequality
which
has caused all these people to become homeless, but she never mentions
structural change of society as a solution.
-----Original Message-----
From: DB-Review@xxxxxxxxx <DB-Review@xxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Thursday, April 1, 2021 7:03 PM
To: DB Review List <DB-Review@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [DB-Review] Nomadland: surviving America in the twenty-first
century DB86971
Nomadland: surviving America in the twenty-first century DB86971 Bruder,
Jessica; White, Karen. Reading time: 10 hours, 0 minutes.
Read by Karen White. A production of the National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Business and Economics
A look at the subculture of older Americans who, unable to afford either
mortgages or retirement, are traveling the country in RVs, campers, and
vans. Particularly examines the life of one woman as she travels between
seasonal jobs and reunions with her van-dwelling friends. Some strong
language. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
This is a book about a group of Americans that never appears in the news or
in fiction. These are some of the victims of our financialized economic
system, the new kind of Capitalism that we have been experiencing since the
mid 1970's. This is non fiction and it does not tell us when the numbers of
these people began to increase. All of them who are described in this book
are white and most of them are over 55 years of age, although there are a
few younger people. Many of these people owned homes in the past and some
earned good incomes. A few earned rather high incomes. Now, all of them are
living in vehicles or small living spaces attached to vehicles. Their only
incomes come from social security benefits and temporary work that they
find
in various parts of the country, as they travel from place to place. All of
the people who are described, have a cheerful, optimistic attitude, and all
of them see the situation in which they find themselves as their individual
problem which they will solve with independence and ingenuity. As you read
this, take a step back and look at the situations in which these people are
living, objectively, Linda, the person on whom the book focuses,
especially,
and think about what the next ten to fifteen years will be like for this 66
year old woman.
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