On 4/4/21, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Frank,
Back when I was young, in the 1940's, a laborer held a job and
supported his family. His wife ran the family and the home. He, the
bread winner, brought home the bacon. Of course we did not need the
glitzy trinkets we now call "leisure time fun", like 70 inch flat
screen TV's, wraparound
sound systems, etc., etc.
Our family home had 1 telephone hanging on the wall in the
kitchen/dining area, 1 Philco table top radio(AM only), 1 hand held
egg beater, 1 waffle iron, 1 windup alarm clock(Westclock), My
wardrobe fit in a single drawer consisting of 3 pair of sox, 3 pair of
under shorts, 3 undershirts, 3 short sleev pull over shirts, 3 long
sleeve shirts, 2 pair of jeans, 1 pair of shoes, 1 all purpose
coat(too warm in the summer, too cold in the winter), and 1 stocking
cap.
Bath night was Sunday evening. Mother measured 2 inches of water in
the bathtub and put all 3 of us in at the same time, until my older
sister began to enter puberty. Washday was all day Monday, with a
scrubbing board and boiling water with the white clothes in. On the
porch sat the old washing machine with the hand cranked wringer. Our
"dryer" was Mother Nature. On nice days we had a clothes line that
was on pullies and the wet clothes were reeled out over the hillside
for all the world to see. On rainy days we hung the wash on lines
under the shelter of the porch roof. Warmth came from a coal stove in
the living room and a wood stove in the kitchen. Our floor was
covered by bright colored linoleum in the living room and dark green
and gray in the kitchen/dining area. We lived there for 12
years(1937-1949). And while we lived just a four minute bus ride from
down town Seattle, we lived in the woods on a steep hillside with only
a path going past our door.
And we children were happy.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/4/21, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl, the days of financial security for the masses are long gone. Did
they
ever exist, who knows. As with most folks these days I work 60 hour work
weeks in which I get paid for 37.5. The bosses call the unpaid labor time
"job security". The first one third of my pay gets automatically deducted
from my check to pay the collection agency for my late mothers medical
bills, which I will be paying for the rest of my life. I have less than
$1000 in savings and even if I had more they would go after that as well.
The rest of my pay goes to heating our home and paying for my medicine.
Neither myself nor my wife will ever be allowed to receive Social
Security
or Medicare. I consider myself typical of what is going on our nation.
Sorry
for my pessimistic Sunday morning view-point.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, April 2, 2021 11:53 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: FW: [DB-Review] Nomadland: surviving
America
in the twenty-first century DB86971
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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