Nomadland

Very recently, I read NOMADLAND, Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder (W.W. Norton and Company, 2017). It tells the story of increasingly large groups of people who have left or abandoned their homes and taken to living in their cars or RV’s. They are often getting on in years, are financially challenged and tend to move several times per year.

Now, these people are not whom you might think of at first blush. They are not the many thousands of people in their 60’s who buy Recreational Vehicles (RV’s) that they have paid six figures for and they take off across the continent to see North America close-up. Those folks often pay $100+ per night for a campsite, and in some rural areas, would save money staying at a hotel. The new Nomads have come to a difficult, painful and sad decision—the cost of maintaining a permanent residence is so onerous that they find that their only option is to find a used RV, refurbish it a bit and hit the road to look for seasonal work and a place where they can park or hide their vehicle for free.

The Nomads may serve as guides in the summer at national parks with the added perquisite of being able to park their RV within the facility safely and free of charge. Others gathered sugar beets in North Dakota which is physically exhausting work that pays a little above minimum wage. Finally, despite other jobs mentioned, a big employer is Amazon distribution centers where the Nomads, usually senior citizens work seasonally at an exhausting pace.

Rural areas are a magnet for these struggling seniors as they are far from highly concentrated population centers. Desert areas in Arizona, Texas and a few other locations are popular choices for these passing strangers. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, gather at Quartzsite, Arizona each winter and are welcomed by the locals. Needles, California also sees a lot of these individuals as well. Given their age and their “camping” far from cities and towns, the police tend not to hassle the Nomads. If they stay too long at a location, the police simply tend to “suggest” that they move on out of their jurisdiction.

Ms. Bruder is a very engaging writer and she spent parts of three years studying and, at times, living with the Nomads. The story is heart wrenching at times and beautifully written. There is the occasional gaping hole in the plot. Most of these people are not destitute. They collect transfer payments such as Social Security in many cases and, many work from time to time as mentioned. I listened with great interest when Ms. Bruder was interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR). When asked how many people were living this lifestyle, she replied thousand and thousands. Okay, but how many thousand? With some 327 million people living in America today, is this really a groundswell or a tiny group who are dealing with hard times in a unique way relevant to 2018? Many have Wi-Fi, write blogs and stay in touch with a wide range of acquaintances.

To me, this is simply a sign of the times. Unemployment is low and markets are stuttering a bit but remain at all time highs. Yet, as mentioned before in this space, nearly half of Americans have been left totally behind in the current strong economy. This small subset who may have worked and worked hard for 40+ years is reduced to living in aging vehicles and struggling to survive. Let us hope when the next inevitable downturn comes their numbers do not swell.

I recommend that you read NOMADLAND.  Candidly, I wonder if these people truly exhausted all options before hitting the road. Some may be estranged from family members and others may want a last bit of true freedom. One last point. Ms. Bruder mentioned that at one time she returned home to Brooklyn and saw a few vehicles parked in an industrial area one night. She wondered if they were NOMADS. Last week, I drove by a Wal*Mart and saw two RVs parked in a corner of the lot. An elderly man stepped out of the vehicle looking down on his luck. Two days later, I drove by and they were both gone. Coincidence?

If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com