02844cam a2200325 4500 497768459 TxAuBib 20210326120000.0 180205t20182017||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780393356311 pbk. $16.95 0393356310 pbk. $16.95 TxAuBib Bruder, Jessica. Nomadland [BOOK] : surviving America in the twenty-first century / Jessica Bruder. Nomad land. New York, N.Y. : W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2018. ℗2017. xiv, 273 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm. "Soon to be a major motion picture ; 100 notable books The New York Times Book Review 2017"--Cover. Includes bibliographical references (pages [257]-273). Foreword -- Part one: The Squeeze Inn -- The end -- Surviving America -- Escape plan -- Part two: Amazon town -- The gathering place -- The Rubber Tramp Rendezvous -- Halen -- Some unbeetable experiences -- Part three: The H word -- Homecoming -- Coda: The octopus in the coconut. From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon's CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves "workampers." In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying her irrepressible protagonist, Linda May, and others, from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells an eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy -- foreshadowing the precarious future that awaits many more of us. At the same time, she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build her own sustainable "Earthship" home, they have not given up hope. 20240226. Older people Employment United States. Retirement Economic aspects United States. Working poor United States. Retirees Employment United States. Migrant labor United States. Recreational vehicle living United States.