Tent City Slums Spring Up in America

[The Straight Story]

Tent City Slums Spring Up in America


Concentrations of homeless people are nothing new in America, but recent BBC and Los Angeles Times reports depict a rising trend of shanty slums, such as a "city" of newly homeless people living in tents near the Ontario airport in Los Angeles.

If you recall your Steinbeck, the residents of the 20c Hoovervilles were largely tenant farmers thrown off their farms by the owners, who in turn tried mechanized farming to bring down costs and break even. These displaced farmers migrated West where they became agricultural day laborers and settled into shanty camps.

The California tent slum depicted in the BBC report is quite different, because they are not migrant workers, so much as locals who have lost their homes. It is hard to tell if the newly dispossessed are all the victims of the subprime market. More likely, the tent slum population is a mix of new and old homelessness -- perhaps with a few migrant workers in the mix.



http://beforeitsnews.com/story/29657/Tent_City_Slums_Spring_Up_in_America.html

[Writer]

1. What a cynical display of a limited memory. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

2. nice professional job on the banner...

i wonder who paid for it...

[Writer]

3. Brilliant point! n/t

[skeptical cynic]

4. Very Third World

I like the spin whereby a suspiciously professional job on the sign somehow implies that these people are not legitimately homeless--an affluent homeless trying to make the President look bad.

But I have to admit, I'm also cynical. There's a homeless guy who haunts the main drag in our town, going through garbage cans looking for aluminum cans to recycle. I wonder, is this guy really homeless, or is he a successful recycling entrepreneur just wearing rags to make the Democratic Party look bad?