“In his 20s, he worked in seasonal kitchens and followed music festivals, selling hats and handbags along the circuit. Later came marriage, children, steady work. He joined the system, as he puts it.”
Tens of thousands of Americans winter on BLM land in Quartzsite, Arizona because actual housing is out of reach. The piece dresses it up as mutual aid and freedom and van life. The buried fact is that this is a domestic refugee population subsisting on free federal land because the formal economy spit them out. Call it what it is.