> Trailers for sale or rent
> Rooms to let, fifty cents
> No phone, no pool, no pets
> I ain't got no cigarettes
> Ah, but two hours of pushing broom
> Buys a eight by twelve four-bit room
Roger Miller's classic *King of the Road*, detailing the economic conditions at the time for the itinerant (who, witnessing vagrants at train stations, inspired him to write this song) details how good the boomers had it -- two hours of minimum wage labor could get a room for a night. I did a simple search for rooms in what were described as America's cheapest capitals. The cheapest actual room I found when I put in "I'm flexible" and willing to not accept any specific date was $60, which is slightly more than one can make on minimum wage in an 8 hour shift. I'm sure there are some roadside motels not indexed on the Internet somewhere, but I'm absolutely sure that none of them are as cheap as $14.50, two hours of the federal minimum wage.
I found hostels in cities with train hubs for roughly $20, so anyone today would have to work an extra hour to not even have a room, just a bed in a room full of other "people" who are statistically certain to eventually steal your possessions over a long enough timeline. 50% increase in cost in labor-hours for something so significantly less that it is a fundamental threat to being able to live a stable life. It is materially impossible to be an itinerant laborer living solely off the virtue of your labor now.
