Dear Friends...

I’m not going to have a place to live come next tuesday so I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone here for the wonderful debates, conversations and everything else had on this forum. I’ve had a lot of good times and learned a lot along the way. I wish everyone here the best of luck in their future endeavors and hope that I may find a way to visit from time to time.

maybe talk to this guy,
I think there are places where you can hang out, learn, teach, and play that may help humanity in the long run.

Good luck and stay cool.

Can’t pay the rent?
I lived in a van for years. I had more money then then now. Had a dog , fishing pole and odd jobs. Come to california we have the fastest shrinking middle class in all the states. You will fit right in. Live by the lake go fishing everyday.

I have lived out of a back pack,

most important tool? jet boil french press…

instant good coffee anywhere, even in the rain.

that and some microfiber clothing and you are good to go.
(microfiber can be sink washed and dry very quickly)

also
when I live out of a car, tools were the most important, as I could keep my beast rolling.


can you convert any belongings into cash for camping gear?

its pricey stuff, but you can get it shipped to a friends home using amazon on the cheap sometimes.

another odd thing that is very handy?
wet wipes…

You seem cool, if you run into some travelers who are on a world tour, hang out for a minute, and maybe join the ride? if they are cool…

some hippies are amazing,

some will steal your pack full of art…

I don’t know the difficulties and chances of getting a job in the states, but from what I hear things are very difficult.

There are jobs everywhere in US. As long as you don’t have a criminal record you can find work easy in a few weeks.

Yes there is work. Some new laws have made it difficult to hire illegals here in Ca so now we see new ads in the paper for farm workers, housing provided around 3 dollars more then the minim wage.
The problem is the pay here. Regulations have caused employers to cut jobs to part time so not to give benefits. All the new laws the past 40 years meant to help the worker have only cut his pay. In california the pay in the triads is rock bottom. Why hire me when you can get many illegals for the same price. I lost a job/client one time and I was replaced by a yard full of men (6 or 8). The legal immigrant that hired them said he was paying them the same price as me and that was at the time 16 dollars a hour cash. My wife is a immigrant that is not the problem. We here spend Billions to keep illegal workers out, then give them incentive/rewards to come in. You can not tell me Big Business is not behind this. It is not for the humanity it is for the cheap workers they allow this.
You look on craislist for a job to be a ditch digger and they want qualifications of a contractor and pay the pay of a dishwasher.
Well I went off into politics. I really try not to.
If I understand correct, president Putin can come to California get get a drivers license and Vote, without a visa.

Thanks for the suggestions I’ll certainly take a look into some of this stuff. Unfortunately I don’t have a car, I do have a tent however, although I’m not really sure where I could pitch it without it being subject to being kicked down by the police. Best I can tell homeless people aren’t really legally allowed to live anywhere.

@Kazinger: I have a tendency to go off on political tangents myself, I don’t mind if this thread is taken in other directions so go ahead and speak freely :slight_smile:

I, myself, don’t really care for what people refer to as corporate greed. For my part I just prefer not to conribute to it, or at the very least minimize my footprint as much as possible rather than actively fight against it. I feel that if something is truely bad then the natural consequences will be negative and unavoidable. Personally I think, and I could be wrong, that the amount of rampant greed we see today is self destructive, there really isn’t any need for intervention as the system will collapse upon itself simply because its design is flawed.

I believe the last time the gap between the rich and the poor reached such extremes the market crashed and the world entered the great depression. I could be wrong, but maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow… Well you know what they say, what goes up must come down.

I wish you the best of luck, and will say a prayer for you.

On that historical note, I don’t think that was a/the (direct) cause of the great depression, (though the reasons are not perfectly clear, there were many factors.) Even the poorest people were able to afford stock, if I remember correctly, both the fact that they could afford stock, and that they did buy it helped the market crash. Though that could be saying something more about the market than the people.

Ever heard of WWOOF ? https://wwoofusa.org ; It can always be a temporary solution.
It’s a great way to discover all about organic stuff and nature in general + you get to meet all kinds of people ( :eyebrowlift2: ) with very different mind sets, and who knows where life might take you, good luck ! :slight_smile:

If you’re anywhere in the young adult stage, then you might want to take the ‘boomerang kid’ route and move back in with your parents (until you can make enough to live on your own again). Even if your parents are older they still may be able to accommodate your needs for the time being, at least it would serve you better than going to a homeless shelter.

Also, perhaps you can also apply for the first minimum wage job you can find (so you can earn something) and also work on developing a new skill for future job prospects.

I have tent camped while homeless, get a nice camo tarp, and set up and tear down each night,

move camp often, but not to places you may get spotted.

I think your best bet, is to find some fun people that need your help just like you need theirs,

Woofing is cool btw, I did 3 farms,

I have had alot of fun cutting wood by hand, and it makes you tough as nails,

some I did by axe, but most I cut with a hand saw…

gives you a mean jab btw.

as for on the trail, I have a fold up super sharp saw that works rather well,

(they can save your ass for sure)

is there any national forest?

have you applied for aid? Foodstamps?

I know it’s not enough but you can rock it until you land somewhere or figure something else out,

Maybe you start a blender and coffee cafe?

who knows.

This is the ad in the paper. http://wafla.org/ job order reference number wa2800975. free housing 12.42 a hour.

@BPR: That Open Source Economy thing, is that something where I could just show up and build a house or is there someone I should contact first. Sounds quite interesting.

@Solarforge: Another similar prospect I’ll be checking out, thanks for the link!

@Ace Dragon: I’m 33 and my girlfriend and I have actually been living with my brother and mother, but unfortunately my mother does not at all get along with my girlfriend and this is why we must be on our way.

@ctdabomb: Your prayers are greatly appreciated thank you. As for the great depression, as I understand it there are many theories as to why this happened, but no one really knows for sure. I’ve heard that there’s a general consensus that buying stocks on margin played a big role. Actually somewhat similar to the housing collapse, people were purchasing their investments with bank loans, when those investments turned sour few were able to pay back those loans leading to the failure of many banks.

The thing about the stock market, and I’m by no means an expert, is that it relies heavily on growth. A publicly traded corporation needs to constantly expand their business to new markets or grow existing ones, doing this leads to greater investment and greater returns. In order to grow those markets and expand to new ones consumers need to have money to spend, but as the wealthy continue to hoard more and more money the working class has less and less to spend.

You could think of it like oil in an engine. So long as the oil is circulating the engine runs like a ‘well oiled machine,’ but if the engine is burning oil then everytime oil cycles a little is burned away until there is no oil left and the engine ceases to function. Money generally cycles from the rich to the working class and back again, but if the rich are continually pocketing a little bit with each cycle eventually what the working class has to spend will dry up leaving no where for companies to expand leading to large scale contraction. Heh, it’s not rocket science :slight_smile:

Is this a matter of thinking that your girlfriend is more important than your family?

This might be coming close to the “selling your soul for the one you love” concept which was modeled to great detail in the Twilight movies. :confused:

I don’t know about the Factor E farm,

I just know that I have been to communes before, some cool, some not so much,

But the idea of a new system, where anything is possible is cool to me as well.

@Ace: I see where you’re coming from, but just because someone is a member of your immediate family doesn’t mean they’re a healthy person to live with. I would use the term psychopath and pathological liar to describe my mother. I don’t mean that in an insulting way, but having studied a bit on psychology and those two particular subjects it would appear as though my mother exhibits the traits associated with those conditions.

I would say she was violently jealous of my girlfriend, having physically abused her numerous times and threatened, on several occaisions, to kill her.

I’ve had several people, including our current neighbors, tell me it is a mystery how I turned out so vastly different than she. I’ve often wondered this myself and the best I can come up with is the fact that I spent very little time with her growing up, if anything perhaps I was raised more by my close friends and their families.

From my experience I would say that my grandfather & grandmother on my mother’s side hated one another with a passion, my mother and her siblings were routinely abused as children and it is from these people she learned what she believes to be love.

P.S. It is interesting to consider the whole nature vs nurture thing. All of the women from my mothers side that I’ve met display similar highly manipulative behavior while none of the men seem to exhibit these traits.

I lived in a run-down hotel for two years from 2009-2011 after the economy tanked. I lost pretty much everything. I ended up creating tutorials for sale on a 3D website, which helped me pay the weekly rent and buy some food. To make more money and eventually get out of there, I created an account at https://www.textbroker.com/ and learned how to write articles, blogs and whatnot for online websites.

It took nearly one year of writing every day from the summer of 2010 to the spring of 2011 to get me out of there and into a nice apartment. If you have no place to stay, get a cheap laptop and sit down at coffee shops and book stores and access their Wi-Fi. If you can’t find a job anywhere else, you can make money online and take care of yourself. You just have to be willing to work for it. Good luck.

In that case continuing living like this in the same house will be very difficult and everybody’s feelings will get hurt. At the very best I would suggest to depart your own way (along with your girl) and earn your living.

It might be nearly impossible to get a job on 3D graphics (nature of the work is mostly freelancing) but there could be other interesting opportunities to look at.
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=&l=Ohio

An old friend of my girlfriend has offered to put us up for a little while so it looks like the world might be stuck with me for a little while longer :wink:

Thanks again for all the suggestions!