Rough Lives PBS artcle

[Pieere]

In America!

[Pieere]

17 hours ago, whj469 said:

I am sorry that I ever posted here! I don't want to read post made by ignorant and uneducated people!

There a delete option for that! Just some good information!

[bigjim]

On 10/30/2017 at 7:53 AM, Pat & Pete said:

Zulu has a helper . Amazing .

Sometimes he has 2.

[bigjim]

18 hours ago, whj469 said:

 

I am sorry that I ever posted here! I don't want to read post made by ignorant and uneducated people!

 

Sometimes that is the price of reading.  As for blocking, that is certainly an option and I have considered it but have decided to save it for the last resort although I admit to considering it for a rare few that have used the forum over the years. Interestingly most have gone by the wayside fairly quickly.  There have been some that I would like to see no one respond to at all just to see how that would play out.  There was recently 1 that told someone FU that I reported immediatly & am sure others did to. They are either blocked or gone totally. I don't know which.

[Blues]

On 10/28/2017 at 8:49 PM, eddie1261 said:

(She CAN spend $200 of those monthly dollars smoking though. Doesn't it seem like when you have no money, vices should be the first thing to go? And please DO NOT tell me how hard it is to quit. If I can quit drinking like I did many years back, anybody can quit anything. It will be 24 years on New Year's Day. It's not hard. It takes desire, discipline and mental toughness, but it is possible.)

There are people who have been able to stop taking diabetes medicine through a combination of diet and exercise.  They will probably say it is hard, but they did it.  So we should assume that everyone with diabetes can and should do the same?  Sure would save us taxpayers and insurance premium payers a lot of money.  Maybe we should just stop covering all diabetes medicine as an incentive to make them control it with diet and exercise.  Or at least as a society, look at them in a judgmental way. 

[eddie1261]

7 hours ago, Blues said:

There are people who have been able to stop taking diabetes medicine through a combination of diet and exercise.  They will probably say it is hard, but they did it.  So we should assume that everyone with diabetes can and should do the same?  Sure would save us taxpayers and insurance premium payers a lot of money.  Maybe we should just stop covering all diabetes medicine as an incentive to make them control it with diet and exercise.  Or at least as a society, look at them in a judgmental way. 

Smoking in a conscious choice. Diabetes is a medical condition. People who have been able to stop taking medications mistakenly refer to that phenomenon by saying "I am no longer diabetic". That is incorrect. You will always be diabetic, as diabetes by definition is a failure of the pancreas to secrete enough insulin. Lowering your body's requirement for insulin by eliminating the sugar it is meant to consume does not increase the amount of insulin available, just the lowering the body's insulin requirement. A well controlled diabetic is still diabetic. Lung cancer, emphysema, heart failure due to oxygen deprivation caused by smoking... those can be avoided by choosing to not indulge in a very bad habit.

Your argument is specious at best. (Look it up.) Among my wise life choices is the one to not suffer fools gladly.

[Yarome]

2 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

People who have been able to stop taking medications mistakenly refer to that phenomenon by saying "I am no longer diabetic". That is incorrect. You will always be diabetic, as diabetes by definition is a failure of the pancreas to secrete enough insulin. Lowering your body's requirement for insulin by eliminating the sugar it is meant to consume does not increase the amount of insulin available,

I won't get into it within this thread (not that it isn't already completely skewed from the OP) but for all but a small percentage of diabetics the above is highly inaccurate.. or at the very least.. misguided.

It's a topic I am sensitive to and always feel a strong need to point out when misinformation is being perpetuated. I would  encourage you to speak to a specialist to better understand your diagnosis, or... it wouldn't suprise me in the least.. , if that was the information you were given at the time of your diagnosis, seek more competent medical advice. 

[Blues]

17 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

Smoking in a conscious choice. Diabetes is a medical condition.

Smoking is an addiction, and diabetes is a medical condition that can be brought on and exacerbated by conscious choices, and sometimes controlled by conscious choices.

I don't think any one of us really has zero impact on the rest of society, and we just have to figure out how to get along and allow for personal differences.  I don't like it that I have to pay, through taxes or insurance premiums, for health care that seems avoidable to me (i.e., related to or caused by smoking or obesity) .  I'm lucky not to have any addict genes, but I understand that other people do, and while I wish they could overcome their addictions (for their sake and mine), I understand why it's different for them than it is for me.  So I grumble but ultimately accept that while we're all different, we're all in this together.

As for the people in the article, I'm lucky that I live in an RV because I want to and not because it's the only way I can survive.  But I'm not who the author was writing about.  She focuses on people who are being exploited and who are unlikely to organize because their survival is linked to always being on the move. 

I think that's the point some posters are missing--she wrote about people in a particular situation, and part of that situation is that they live in RVs and travel from job to job.  She didn't write an exploration of fulltime RV living in general, or even specifically, actually.  She wrote about how a group of people is attempting to survive, and if you're not one of those people, then there's nothing to take personally.

 

[Just Don]

FYI

I though I'd kick some dirt into the conversation since miss spelling is forbidden and since muslims don't fast all month.

No I'M not muslim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

While fasting from dawn until sunset, Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking, and engaging in sexual relations. Muslims are also instructed to refrain from sinful behavior that may negate the reward of fasting, such as false speech (insulting, backbiting, cursing, lying, etc.) and fighting except in self-defense.^[15][16] Food and drinks are served daily, before dawn and after sunset, referred to as Suhoor and Iftar respectively.^[17][18] Spiritual rewards (thawab) for fasting are also believed to be multiplied within the month of Ramadan.^[19] Fasting for Muslims during Ramadan typically includes the increased offering of salat (prayers), recitation of the Quran^[20][21] and an increase of doing good deeds and charity.

[eddie1261]

On 11/1/2017 at 2:57 PM, Blues said:

Smoking is an addiction

Sorry, but I disagree. When someone smokes for the VERY first time it is not an addiction. That is a conscious choice to take up that awful habit. Whether they allow it to become an addiction, that is a different situation. If you don't want to risk an addiction to something, don't start using it. Nobody is born addicted to nicotine, unlike crack or other blood transmitted substances. I drank like it was going out of style for 25 years, but I was not born addicted to alcohol. I started drinking when I was 17 by choice. I perfected the craft during my military years, and at age 42 I decided to quit. I may or may have not been an alcoholic. I can say that I never went to AA and quit myself by the same power to choose that saw me start. I still went out with the guys. I just drank ginger ale and did not have any less fun being sober. In fact, I either had more fun or it may just have been that I could remember it. 

But that is a debate I don't want to get into. My point is that people can put vices aside if they really want to. Discipline and mental toughness wins those wars.

[Blues]

2 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

I may or may have not been an alcoholic. I can say that I never went to AA and quit myself by the same power to choose that saw me start. I still went out with the guys. I just drank ginger ale and did not have any less fun being sober. In fact, I either had more fun or it may just have been that I could remember it. 

But that is a debate I don't want to get into. My point is that people can put vices aside if they really want to. Discipline and mental toughness wins those wars.

Since you're not sure if you were an alcoholic, you're probably not in the best position to say what it takes to overcome an addiction to alcohol. 

As for just exercising one's power to choose, it's a hell of a lot easier to choose to take your first sip of alcohol than to choose not take a drink when you're addicted to alcohol.  That's how addiction works, and discipline and mental toughness might work for some, but it doesn't work for the vast majority.  That's why they seek outside help, and even after quitting alcohol, relapse at alarming rates.  Addiction is confounding, and it doesn't advance the ball to treat it as if it's not. 

 

[justRich]

On 10/27/2017 at 6:12 AM, eddie1261 said:

The entire tenor of the article was distorted by who she chose as her sample base. She went after people who are close to penniless.

Agreed.  That social strata existed long before the Great Recession.
Opinion:  An overlap of social stratas was created by the recession.    

Drinking, smoking, spending time in a bar and maybe hitting a few drugs along the way is not the same crowd that was forced into foreclosure then decided to "make it" in an RV.

There are two groups; the irresponsible and the responsible.  They overlap due to recent economic conditions.

 

 
 

[Ray,IN]

I think the sentence, "she lasted one workweek" sums up everything.....

[StarDreamers.us]

Please let's not get nasty with each other. An opinion is just that, how one sees the world or the situation, often filtered by the experiences or work, travels or contacts one has made.

Safe Travels!

[Kirk W]

Here is another story of the same sort, but from the Orlando Sentenial, that expresses the same type of experience. 

[Pieere]

On 11/26/2017 at 10:45 PM, Ray,IN said:

I think the sentence, "she lasted one workweek" sums up everything.....

X's Two!

[GlennWest]

Interesting, I work full time and travel from job to job. But we don't fit in this books mold.

[Pieere]

Have a wonderful Life!

[OldMan]

On 10/26/2017 at 3:53 PM, Al F said:

There is no question in my mind that there is some percentage of the work campers who fit in the group the article is targeting.

Now saying that, should these people move out on the streets, living homeless on the streets or under the freeway overpasses? 

I sounds like those who fell on hard times are making the best of the situation and living in an RV and travel for jobs. 

I don't bloody care what the article says, people are out there for a myriad of reasons.

My partner and I have lived in the Bay Area together for 18 years. I was employed as a newspaper photographer (a pathetically underpaid, under-appreciated and misunderstood profession) and I worked on and off in tech for 10 years. Then my contract ended. The calls from recruiters slowed. Then stopped. It's probably two years away, but eventually we'll be forced out. So she's the one with the job.But she'll eventually be forced out, too.

If it was up to me, we'd start prepping for it, tomorrow.

[HomeSweetRV]

This opened my eyes ...

"Anybody else had the same opportunity."

 

and this...

" point is that people can put vices aside if they really want to. Discipline and mental toughness wins those wars."

[bigjim]

human beings have discipline and mental toughness in varying degrees. That is a fact. Some can learn it or inhance it but the basis needs to be there.  Nature at its basics or what God gives it to  you if that is what you believe.

[GlennWest]

Since this subject has gone to alcoholism let me inform you about me. My mother, God rest her soul, drank liquor while carrying me. I was born drunk and had to be weaned off. Yes, the first rememberable of liquor I loved it. Through God's help I no longer consume alcohol. 

[bigjim]

I am very sincerely happy for you Glenn.

[OldMan]

On 2/18/2018 at 10:04 AM, bigjim said:

human beings have discipline and mental toughness in varying degrees. That is a fact. Some can learn it or inhance it but the basis needs to be there.  Nature at its basics or what God gives it to  you if that is what you believe.

Thank you for pointing out the fallacy in the previous post.

[keepitlow]

When I drove round L.A. I would see lots of boondockers. Then I heard L.A. made it illegal to sleep in vehicle. So don't know where things are at now.

I was told 40,000 people living in tents...

I shot this through my front windshield while driving to the airport.