Camping For Their Lives Summary

In society its expected that people grow up, get a job, get married, and move into a big, nice house. For many people that dream is just that; a dream. According to Scott Bransford, author of Camping for Their Lives, most of the residents who live in a “tent city” called Taco Flat in Fresno, California the concept of home is changing, and has become nothing but a daydream, but this isn’t where they had pictured their lives ending up. Weather they are here because of bad life choices, or failed career paths there is one thing they have in common; uncertainty. In 2005, Fresno California was ranked the number one city in California for the greatest concentration of poverty (Bransford, 2009). Most of California seems to be sprinkled with tent cities, or squatter villages, but to call them that takes away the severity of the situation and almost makes them seem temporary. Many people are quick to point fingers and state that we are headed into the next Great Depression. Rahul Mehrotra, who is an associate professor in the urban studies and planning department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states

Never did the author mention that most of the residence in the tent cities are undocumented workers or that 41 percent have been incarcerated in the past for crimes. At the end of the day, is it the government’s job to make sure that residence take the right path in life? Would the undocumented workers making low wages, and unable to get formal housing, have been able to get a good paying job or better housing had they taken the steps to enter the country legally. Bransford, again, used emotional appeal which will hurt his credibility in some of the arguments that he made during the article. This article can be seen as very one sided and would have better credibility had it shared both