I get your joke, really and truly, but you might be surprised to know a lot of poor people live on boats. I did it. Down at the marina was the shadiest place I’ve ever been.
We were illegal poopers. However! When you are living so close to nature, you are aware of your “footprint”. And it’s just poop. Chemical cleaners were minimal, which is not something “landlubbers” think about.
You just assume it goes down the drain and the problem is solved. But we knew how often the sanitation plants for civic sewage had “incidents” when they couldn’t operate properly and just dumped it all into the river.
So my poop; just a drop in the bucket; picture it. It isn’t all those chemicals; it’s just poo. Picture my poo, picture my poo, picture my poo.
Anyway, if your local news says something about boaters polluting your water, that is a red flag about civic sanitation because a little bit of poop is a small concern when stacked up to everyone’s poop and chemicals. And don’t even get me started on those macerator things some people have in their sinks; those are the worst.
It’s all there at the marina, mostly. Some people keep the water attached to their boat all the time. We didn’t because sometimes the stop filling the boat with water thingy fails and it doesn’t stop filling your boat with water.
Electricity was there.
Cooking was propane, we had 5 of those 5 gallon tanks that some petrol stations refill; there was one nearby.
Heating was diesel which was also the thing that makes the boat go when wind wasn’t hitting the sails right and you just get that refueled from time to time as well. But yeah, when you are poor you aren’t sailing much, you are living at the marina.
I hope I am satisfying your curiosity. It is a lifestyle most will never know but also in a mundane way. If you are desperate and living in a van, maybe? You get to own a place. The marina fees are same-ish to property tax. It’s a walkable community. You will make a lot of friends who will die in the river, either by accident or nefarious reasons.
It’s a sad place and I don’t want to go back there.
VIC-20, yes. But dad’s tantalizing work computer, nah. We used to make time to type things and wait together. Like, we would have dinner together and then King’s Quest would have eventually loaded and we would all have walked into a River accidentally together, as a family.
Thank you; I didn’t know that. You do have a rather big country and I still sort of wonder if it is universally recognized. Again, just going by never having seen them in movies. Maybe United Statesians aren’t just fictional characters in movies. We’ll never know.
No offense intended. I have been to a lot of countries in the Americas and the US (despite being rather big) is not really a place I go to. So when I specify like that, it is from my own experience (and—you know—actual geography and stuff) and I am a little bit sorry to have apparently offended.
Edit: that sounded sarcastic because it was a bit, but really, I didn’t intend to offend. Sorry, let’s be friends.
I am really appreciating how kind people are here. This really isn’t Reddit. I haven’t just been told I am wrong; I have been given anecdotal stories. So I was wrong, and I learned, and this is fun.
My friend, I am open to suggestions. “American” with like 100-ish countries in it doesn’t really narrow it down for me. Peace and love and all that stuff.
My friend, I used words with no intention to offend nor dive into pedantry. I am sorry you find it worth going on about. “America”. There, take it. Please have a good rest of your day, friend.
That has negatively built in and I truly didn’t want to offend. But! Given some of these comments, maybe “snowflakes” is the neutral term I should use.
Most people are able to infer—by context—that someone saying “America” means US if the topic is the US. They are—to some extent—colloquially interchange, given context. I just didn’t say it myself because it isn’t normal nor natural here. Again, sorry to everyone hung up on my phrasing because it’s a non-issue as far as I’m concerned. Call yourselves and think of yourselves as whatever you want. You have my blessing and approval.
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Tell me what it means (lemm.ee)
Good luck! (lemmy.world)
But I am le tired (lemmy.world)
Features lost across versions of macOS (talk.tidbits.com)
TIL Ecuador doesn't have its own currency and uses US dollars, but maybe not the same US dollars you are used to seeing. (lemmy.world)