Walmart Parking Lots

[FunInTheSunParticipant 8284]

If you ever go to a Walmart, you’re likely to see RVs and campers in the parking lot. This documentary examines the lives of a few people who don’t have homes or jobs and spend most of their time parked outside of a Walmart:

After watching this video, I started thinking about the presidential election. Sometimes presidential candidates will tell us about unemployment percentages in the USA, but they can’t account for those who don’t collect unemployment checks or any form of government welfare. These people are “off the radar.”

It makes me sad to think that there’s a large population of struggling Americans that can’t really be accounted for. They are basically wandering from place to place and they probably get by with odd jobs and panhandling. I’m living in a nation with the highest gross domestic product and an unbelievable amount of concentrated wealth among the top 1,000,000 rich folks among us. Yet there are millions of Americans that are not obtaining the American Dream (good job, house, car, etc.). Either there aren’t enough jobs or a way to get them employed.

The number of Americans living in poverty is probably the same as the population of Spain. Life can be a miserable struggle here despite the images of prosperity that’s shown on TV.

So when a politician says some Americans are no longer looking for work, I get an idea of what they mean when I see people camping out in Walmart parking lots. I wish them well, and I hope they find a steady job or a way to make money.

"I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win-and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was ‘No.’" (Atlas Shrugged)

[Anonymous 43]

I used to walk parkinglots looking for dropped change

[narrow road travelerParticipant 1680]

Some people like the mobile lifestyle for the freedom it offers. When I accumulate enough capital and passive income I hope to be staying in Walmart parking lots for a couple of days at a time. This seems.like an attempt to get people afraid.of living with less and not being plugged into the matrix.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. --Sun Tsu

[Governor Megachris%Participant 3584]

Funny I’m reading this as I’m sleeping in my Ford Excursion in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Been doing it for over a week. I’m from Houston, Texas but I’m near Little Rock, Arkansas now. LOTS of interviews here so far. I’ve come to learn that my truck is REALLY comfortable. The weather is cooling off as well, and it’s even better.

The best thing about sleeping in my truck is that it’s not a huge RV that anyone can recognize right away.

Now if I land a job this week…all will be PERFECT.

[KillmandrillParticipant 497]

Joe,the guy from the beginning of the movie, I think is an example where a health insurance could have helped, by fixing his back, so he could still be part of the work force, let aside his gambling addiction. I wonder if it was an occupational accident, they don´t say. I just don´t get why so much Americans are against health insurance.
Here in Germany it´s a law that you have to be health insured, else you wouldn´t get to work, your employer has to pay half of it. It´s easy to point the finger at something and call “socialism”, but it really isn´t, wouldn´t it be free then? And yes I pay for others while not in need of any help, but what if……..,.
If I imagine someone not being health insured having his appendix removed, which can happen to everyone, and the costs of it like 60000$ at least, who has that kind of money handy, being just an Average Joe worker?
Health insurance here means to keep people working until they can retire.

There´s homeless people here too, but if they really want to, they could find their way back to paid work with a little help and assistance by official or non-official institutions.

Those people living in a parking lot are taken out of the equasion, here they brush up their statistics shortly before any kind of election by pushing unemployed people into some trainings of any kind, useful or not, so they´re no longer considered unemployed, homeless people here are also not part of the statistics.The political parties present it as their effort to put so much people back to work, right after the election the numbers drop back to what they´ve been before.

I’m sleeping in my Ford Excursion in a Wal-Mart parking lot

@Governor Megachris%
I wish you good luck in finding a job!

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent. Friedrich Nietzsche

[Anonymous 42]

FunInTheSun wrote:

Either there aren’t enough jobs or a way to get them employed.

Blame it ALL on MANAGEMENT! The place people go when they form lynch mobs.

Thank BLOATED government and detrimental spending!

NOTHING IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN A MAN WITH NOTHING TO LOOSE!

In 10 years these Richie Rich and getting richer will not only live in gated communities but ARMED gated communities! But that does nothing to protect them once they’re OUTSIDE the gate! Then it becomes a FREE for ALL!

I see a future of kidnapped dead rich people floating downstream…

P.S. Hey MegaChris%, I’m glad to see you made it to Arkansas! Keep on fighting! Don’t give up!

[DwightDavidParticipant 859]

There was a homeless man living in his van at the Walmart by me a few years back. He had videos on Youtube and was a homeless advocate. He used to post his videos and work on his blog using the wi-fi of a Panera in the same lot.It was interesting because this is a fairly well off area, and until then, I was mostly unaware of the homeless. Not being snobbish, I just never grew up with it. I would see him every Saturday when I went shopping. He did get some money together and moved to Texas, I think. I lost track. I am going to have to look him up.
Thanks for the video though. It is humbling to think this could happen to anyone, myself included.

[HitmanParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

P.S. Hey MegaChris%, I’m glad to see you made it to Arkansas! Keep on fighting! Don’t give up!

we are with you brother !
don’t you dare give up ..
you’ll see .
never give up .

[Anonymous 24]

I sure saw a big jump in homeless after 08. And it seems to me the plight is still slowly growing. I do what I can for guys near me from time to time.

Thanks Obama.

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant 2572]

Governor Megachris% wrote:

Funny I’m reading this as I’m sleeping in my Ford Excursion in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Been doing it for over a week. I’m from Houston, Texas but I’m near Little Rock, Arkansas now. LOTS of interviews here so far. I’ve come to learn that my truck is REALLY comfortable. The weather is cooling off as well, and it’s even better.

The best thing about sleeping in my truck is that it’s not a huge RV that anyone can recognize right away.

Now if I land a job this week…all will be PERFECT.

I hope it works out. I ended up landing for about half of what I was making prior, now in a call center again, doing work there. I do hope it works out for you.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

[IGMOW (I Go My Own Way)Participant 2572]

Anonymous wrote:

I sure saw a big jump in homeless after 08. And it seems to me the plight is still slowly growing. I do what I can for guys near me from time to time.

Thanks Obama.

Things have changed since the financial meltdown (starting before). It is now, if you get it right, you become very rich, otherwise, you are increasingly ending up at risk. Look for the whole share economy as a fiasco. This has been going on for quite awhile now. I know IT never quite recovered from the recession around 2001 or so. There was also considered a lost decade as far as private sector jobs flatlining. The Internet Bubble got replaced by the Housing Bubble. There isn’t quite another Bubble yet, outside of maybe student loans, because people aren’t seeing anything as the hot area to pile into, so you don’t see everyone going one area.

Here is an article on the Lost Decade:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/06/americas-lost-decade-for-jobs/20017/

One thing to keep in mind regarding economic growth is that it is arguably exponential in nature. It isn’t just the same, but growing exponentially.

"I am my own thang. Any questions?" - Davis S Pumpkins.

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