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I'd like to know where/ how you found out Bob has a sticks and bricks home. This is the only place I've heard of it. Can you verify your information?
I read somewhere he has a condo in Pahrump Nevada. Nothing wrong with that. I would think as we age, van living would be more difficult. Bob made some money with YouTube which I bet was totally unexpected. The videos just took off. I don't begrudge anyone making money so good for Bob.
Insightful??? The article was written by a upper class woman for upper class woman that has no clue.
Her is her opening paragraph.
"The simple premise of the movie is that Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman deeply grieving the death of her husband, has DECIDED to leave her home and join up with the ragged fraternity of workers—mostly old people—who live in their vans or cars, and who follow seasonal work the way migrant farmworkers follow a harvest"
She has NO CHOICE.
If you don't get that, you don't get the rest of it.
Traveling around in my RV by choice I run into these folks all the time in camping areas. They put on a brave front, so much, so that it is easy to overlook their desperate circumstances.
It has been US Government policy to shift low-wage jobs out of the country since 1988. It really peaked during the Obama years which is when the book was written. That finally started changing in 2016.
Interesting discussion of all this in the Atlantic of all things.
The character of Fern (fictional character) did have choices. She makes choices that seem brave to some people, irrational to others. Some viewers, like yourself, may not see them as choices for some reason, thus making the character a complete wreck on the shoals of circumstance. I don't think she (even as a fictional person) sees herself that way.
Surely there are nomads and probably plenty of them that are in desperate circumstances. I'm just a talking about one (fictional) character in this particular movie.
In the movie, she had choices. Both her sister and her love interest offered her a place to stay.
Going back even further before her husband died, she had opportunities to improve her life that would have taken her beyond low wage jobs.
You complain about low wage jobs being shipped overseas? You're advocating for lifelong low paying jobs?
Did you read the book??
It gives a better overview of her choices. I just re-read it, but I have not seen the movie.
I am "advocating" for "lifelong low paying jobs".
If you live in the USA and work you should be able to have a "liveable" lifestyle.
Not only did we export low wage jobs overseas as a MATTER OF GOVERNMENT POLICY, but we opened the borders to millions of low wage workers from throughout the world. Dropping the wages of American's at the lower end of the income scale.
We immigrated to this country at the EXACT year when US immigration reached its low point, last century.
As a family of five, we survived. It wasn't great, but it was much, much, much better than the US citizens portrayed in the book.
Because I was different, my elementary school sent me to a speech therapist to speak English, without an accent, and just like all those other California kids. I was a horrible high school student, but the JC system got me over the hump and I graduated from UC Berkeley with a professional degree.
It is almost impossible for immigrant children to do that today, just because there are so many of them.
BUT, I remember my parents saying that we were blessed and hopefully the Americans would not realize that they should TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN FIRST.
Fewer low wage workers, the higher their wages will be. I learned that in economics classes at UC Berkeley. It is that simple.
If you work, you should do better in your living standards than those that do not chose to work.
If you cannot work, because your old or disabled you should have a minimum standard of living.
If you chose not to work....well, your on your own. Don't expect any help from me. Yes, I understand mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, but if you won't help yourself. I cannot help you in any case.
BTW...those are not fictional characters in the movie.
Did you catch that she has cancer? The lady who wrote the review I mean. Interesting.
Yes. The cancer along with her age and the other things about her life and experience seemed to create a certain openness to the movie and to Fern's choices and circumstances. A lot there about owning vulnerability and co-existing with it, sometimes painful, sometimes liberating.
I liked the movie when I saw it a while back, but it didn't ring in all the way for me like it did for the author of the Atlantic review. I am of that generation though and the things she wrote about the characters getting to be girls again and about being of the '60s generation... makes me want to go back and watch the film again.
It gives a better overview of her choices. I just re-read it, but I have not seen the movie.
I am "advocating" for "lifelong low paying jobs".
If you live in the USA and work you should be able to have a "liveable" lifestyle.
Not only did we export low wage jobs overseas as a MATTER OF GOVERNMENT POLICY, but we opened the borders to millions of low wage workers from throughout the world. Dropping the wages of American's at the lower end of the income scale.
We immigrated to this country at the EXACT year when US immigration reached its low point, last century.
As a family of five, we survived. It wasn't great, but it was much, much, much better than the US citizens portrayed in the book.
Because I was different, my elementary school sent me to a speech therapist to speak English, without an accent, and just like all those other California kids. I was a horrible high school student, but the JC system got me over the hump and I graduated from UC Berkeley with a professional degree.
It is almost impossible for immigrant children to do that today, just because there are so many of them.
BUT, I remember my parents saying that we were blessed and hopefully the Americans would not realize that they should TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN FIRST.
Fewer low wage workers, the higher their wages will be. I learned that in economics classes at UC Berkeley. It is that simple.
If you work, you should do better in your living standards than those that do not chose to work.
If you cannot work, because your old or disabled you should have a minimum standard of living.
If you chose not to work....well, your on your own. Don't expect any help from me. Yes, I understand mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, but if you won't help yourself. I cannot help you in any case.
BTW...those are not fictional characters in the movie.
You are conflating numerous unrelated issues. The bottom line was that the Fran character and yes, even the real life "Fran" had choices in her life to improve her socioeconomic situation. Can you deny that?
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