Wherever you go throughout my native Kern County you will find people living in abominable conditions, too often illegal aliens that are forced to live in places many would find unsuitable for the family dog or cat, without proper sanitation or even running water. It might be a junk trailer or even a camper, but people are crowded into these for the sake of slave labor and the rent charged for places no better than the sties and chicken coops on farms. Some are so crowded they deny anything like the “privilege” of closing a door for privacy, and some evidence the presence of people utterly ignorant of civilized living and hygiene.

But even here in the Kern River Valley we have our “gypsies,” those without jobs or housing that simply “camp out” wherever they can find a place to do so. Not long after I bought this cottage in Bodfish some years ago I had to enlist the aid of Carl Sparks to come with some of his deputies to clear out the “shanty-town” that had grown up around my property. Things had come to a head after my place had been burglarized, and when some of these people were running hoses from my property for water and I came home once to find the cops had six of them lined up in handcuffs next door.

Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” continues throughout the world, and even here in America instances of such atrocious working conditions may still be found. I was raised among the Okies and Arkies who had their own stories of being reduced to slave labor such as Steinbeck made infamously memorable. I’ve always known how to work with my back and hands, skilled with hammer, saw, pick and shovel. But where jobs were once plentiful in America, jobs that held the promise of advancing to something better have fast disappeared, shipped out of our nation by a duplicitous government and corporations to employ and feed the slaves for less money elsewhere in places like Mexico, China, and India.

Working in places like Watts and East San Jose, as a teacher as well as for CPS I’ve witnessed the intolerable conditions many children are forced into because of the irresponsibility of individuals and our government; local, state, and federal. Children invariably suffer because of the irresponsibility of the adults who have children in their “care.” Some time ago when three, small children came screaming and pounding on my door, one of them badly injured and bloody because of accidentally breaking a window with his arm I had to call 911. Only after the paramedics and the required fire truck arrived was it discovered the children had been left alone without an adult in attendance. The call was put in to the sheriff’s department and the children were placed in custody with CPS, as is usual in such circumstances.

If it were not for my broad experience working with children in so many diverse circumstances the stories I have told in some of my books would only be anecdotal, but from childhood on I have personally experienced so many of the dreadful things done to children this removes the things I write about from simply being anecdotes, the melancholy accidents that occur to children anywhere. Over forty years ago I began to tell parents things were not as bad as they thought in the schools, they were worse! And now things seem to be worse for children even in their homes. The conditions children are living in is a mirror reflecting an entire society, and the reflection is increasingly one of distress for children.

The better educated among Americans have only the number of children they can reasonably be expected to care for. But this is a diminishing factor in America as the preponderance of children are being born to the irresponsible and uneducated, primarily illegal aliens; the result being a diminishing hope such children will ever know anything but want and ignorance, too often left for responsible taxpayers to support in one way or another. But given the economic uncertainty for America, responsible taxpayers may soon not be able to support a burgeoning population of those that cannot or will not be productive members of society. And “subsidized housing” for a welfare population will certainly fail when responsible people can no longer afford the kind of taxation that comes with a growing population of “drones.” Knowing this, I reflect on the shanties many millions in America now inhabit and my own experience with such deplorable living conditions.

Affordable housing was a keynote of Henry Thoreau’s “Walden,” and since he realized how important shelter was he dwelt on this theme at some length including the experience of building his own little cottage by the pond. In one telling remark Henry asked whether it would be wise for the Indian to trade his wigwam which he owned for the comparative palace of the white man which he would never own. Henry also remarked on how rare it was for the citizens of Concord to actually own their homes and farms, that most were mortgaged, and often for more than they were worth the result being in many cases passing on to heirs property that was more of an encumbrance than something of value. The infamy of present money-lenders has a very old “pedigree” here in America, even going back to the times of the Bible.

I’ve experienced living in what would qualify as the “Irish sties” Henry referred to, one such shanty he bought for materials to use in the construction of his own cottage. The six years I lived as a boy on a mining claim here in the Kern River Valley without utilities of any kind and having an outdoor privy were an education in Henry’s “simplicity of life.” Later when I first read Walden I could easily relate to Henry’s thoughts on the subject, especially when it came to affordable housing. I knew why he could refer to that toolbox for the railroad workers being sufficient for shelter, though it might only be large enough to sleep in. For a dollar, Henry suggested, one might have such adequate shelter rather than rent a more commodious dwelling and find yourself worrying and looking over your shoulder for a “remittance man” dogging you for the rent.

With my background in building skills, when the tracts were being developed around the Saugus area in L. A. County I knew I could design and build a better house. Buying and subdividing some raw land in Acton, I did so. It was a three bedroom, two bath house with attached double garage. I had it sold before I finished the framing. Over the years, I continued to build and rehab many houses, but in all these efforts I never forgot the importance of “affordable housing” as per Thoreau. I never deluded myself that people were buying houses they would actually own, but as Henry warned were incurring mortgages that precluded their ever actually owning their homes. And the story of the Indian trading the wigwam he owned for something better he would never own stayed in my mind; I knew very well from personal experience exactly what Henry was talking about.

Few would argue the advantages of civilized living are vastly preferable to that of the Indian living in a wigwam, but what is the advantage of living comfortably yet in fear of exorbitant taxes, rent or mortgage that can have you out on the street at any time? One might suppose when enough of such people from the better classes are dispossessed and forced to live in third world conditions an answer to the millions being increasingly subsidized by taxpayers might be resolved.

I’ve always had an interest in “alternative housing and energy.” I’ve done a few experiments along these lines and know shelter and energy can be reduced to very small means. But in most cases government restrictions such as building codes prevent many of these things being utilized. A few shelving boards or bricks of adobe, even native rocks would provide shelter, and the absolute requirements of food and water might be available in the right locations, though even a “tent in the wilderness” is only suitable when such is the manner of a culture and society. Here in America people expect “better,” whether they can afford it or not. But when the means of better runs out…?

A neighbor of mine a few years ago was really into “Pyramidology.” So much so, that he actually constructed a pyramid of plywood and measuring a hundred square feet in his yard. The structure could not contain any metal, so following directions he screwed and glued, and when the glue had properly set he removed the screws and puttied the holes. The idea was to sleep in this structure and gain strength and insights otherwise unavailable to mortals.

While my neighbor claimed he received enormous benefits from sleeping in the structure, it occurred to me that pyramids are not the design of choice when considering shelter from the elements. In fact, they are not the normal shape of any structures; which makes the mystery of various pyramids all the more mysterious. Why would such a design occur to anyone when it is not a natural choice? From grass and mud huts to the designs of great cathedrals certain forms suggest themselves, but pyramids will always remain the “exotics” of architecture and you are not likely to find one being built in your neighborhood.

But pyramids come to mind when considering the seeming lunacy of our leaders that are bent on requiring We the People make bricks without straw. We have a number of crises looming on the immediate horizon, but none of those in office or running for office seem to be willing to give attention to these crises apart from lip-service and the predictably hollow and vacuous “promises.” However, as things worsen economically for ordinary American citizens the thoughts of affordable housing loom as the potential straw that breaks the camel’s back. And subsidized housing, living like rats in cages paid for by taxation without representation is not a part of the “American Dream.” And if heating bills double next year as we have been warned will happen, and drinking water becomes scarce, and gas and food prices escalate beyond our means, and so on…?