8/31/11: News Article on Workamping

[slowmover]

'Workampers': What It's Like to Wander Around the Country in an RV Desperately Looking for Work

By Michael Thornton, AlterNet

Posted on August 30, 2011

Article Link


A decent summation. This sort of article, though, needs to go into the files of "fulltiming" as situations change, personal and societal. The narrative here is one of desperation -- genteel poverty gone amok. A shallow report, in other words.

The desire to be mobile needs to outweigh the desire for the higher-cost, thus higher-income requirements of stick & brick existence.

One would like to see work-kampers organize themselves in some way to offset long-term costs in order to maximize short-term gains.

This post -- written hurriedly -- was an attempt to point out that job growth is connected exclusively to cities, and specifically, to particular city regions. One can read the social demographic posts by Richard Florida for one comprehensive view utilizing maps to visualize potentials.

"Potentials" that in my mind, at present, have to do with "home bases" for RV'ers in a self-defined group that are close enough to a major region to allow for low costs (goods distributution, plus utilities, etc) and take advantage of the needs for the commuter, above, who travels seasonally for work (beyond those for hospital stays, visits with relative, etc). Income-offsetting if not income-generating.

(Self-defined, as in A/S only parks. Etc).

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[eubank]

Geez, the article makes it almost sound like workampers are just a bunch of wandering, homeless outcasts from the great recession. Duh.

Lynn

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by eubank

Geez, the article makes it almost sound like workampers are just a bunch of wandering, homeless outcasts from the great recession. Duh.

Lynn

Yes, it's a fear narrative: Better you remain trapped in a house you can't sell rather than try an alternative better suited to your needs and those, potentially, of your extended family, (not to mention desires; that's the province of corporate evil Disney)

This was part and parcel of "reporting" in the 1960's on the yippies. No actual discussion of issues raised, just push the visceral disgust button: all ears closed henceforth.

The readership at Alternet is better-educated than at MSM sites, but just as amenable to what's "uncool". Electric bikes are cool, etc, among that readership on many sites. A super long life, all-aluminum aerodynamic travel trailer is just as cool, if not more so. That there is a divide between the two is false. RV'ers are blue collar government employees with giant pickemups and 20k-lb 5'ers; just as false.

Steinbecks Joad family is NOT the model, despite the authors blinders but the links are good). The number of municipalities (Portland, OR prominently) trying to crack down on people trying to find work and sleeping in their cars in residential neighborhoods is growing. Portland has a future, but not fast enough for the young people wanting quality over quantity (see Florida).

Expect to see the sleeping-in-the-car syndrome linked to the wandering poor . . when their connection is about as tenable as crime derives from living in high rise buildings.

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