My current home (when camping isn't feasible) is a 1987 Volvo 240 DL station-wagon whose odometer got stuck at 298,726 miles roughly 5-10 years ago (estimating 12k miles a year x25 years). She is certainly a charismatic one. I've asked many mechanics if the idle is normal but have yet to receive a clear answer. Of course I would have a newer, more reliable home (or maybe even a real home, imagine that!) if my budget when my one year in a home (via HUD voucher) came to an abrupt end a few months ago was greater than $1900. Of course it is important for the beneficiaries of modern day slavery / Capitalism / Neo-Feudalism to keep the rent insanely high as guess what the last sector of the economy to collapse is? That's right, it's the rents! Why do you think the Big Banks we bailed out in 2008 via TARP turned around and purchased the massive number of recently foreclosed homes and kept them vacant? To prop up the property value of course!
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/shadow-housing-inventory-the-deception-of-the-foreclosure-numbers-and-the-real-reo-picture-a-case-study-of-southern-california-real-estate-how-40000-homes-are-hidden-from-public-view-by-banks/
Meanwhile the number of vacant homes outnumber the homeless 6 to 1!
http://www.mintpressnews.com/empty-homes-outnumber-the-homeless-6-to-1-so-why-not-give-them-homes/207194/
More on TARP:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104
So veterans, honorably served, with very few real jobs to gain access to (what with all of the outsourcing of the 90's, the "etherialization" of the economy and now here comes automation) are forced to live in their cars, camp in public parks, and spend their waking hours in public libraries, trying in vain to pretend they aren't homeless (partially succeeding, most of the existing poverty in this country is hidden, unlike previous era's of poverty, such as the Great Depression where there were food and work lines everywhere. Now everyone is given a food-stamp card).
Living this way forces one to appreciate life's little details (I'm not working 60 hours a week just to put a roof over my head in the San Francisco Bay Area for one thing, imagine if everyone wasn't so busy with work!) such as this Volkswagen Westfalia, an excellent, much sought after choice among the Homo S. Mobilis sub-species.
In a curiously coincident way, I just so happened to be listening to this podcast between Derrick Jensen ("End Game", "A Language Older Than Words","The Culture of Make Believe") and Stephanie McMillan ("Capitalism Must Die") where they explore the reality of the situation where the capitalist can harm and kill people towards the end of making profit and isn't held accountable for the crime of murder (6:18 minute mark)
http://prn.fm/resistance-radio-stephanie-mcmillan-05-01-16/
The first thing that caught my eye with this van was a quote in Latin. Now, I had not heard of "Google Translate" but I assumed, intuitively, that someone had to have made an application that translates written text using your smart-phone camera, and a quick search query confirmed this. Unfortunately, the camera feature doesn't work on Latin, but plugging in the writing results the English translation:
"We cannot consider it a crime to kill you"
Oh and to any of this blog's older visitors, I think I'm back, I am going to try to post things relevant to Collapse from my unique"boots on the ground" perspective each Sunday. Stay posted.
