Workamping isn't meant to be a full-time income to support a person or a couple. It is relatively low skill work and pays not much. Workamping is meant to supplement a retirement income and provide structure to fill some part of a retiree's days.Those who draw their pension or Social Security and do 20 hours a week in return for free camping and utilities enjoy it. It is particularly useful for those who never developed hobbies and find filling the empty hours of retirement a burden. For them it is perfect, and they do make friends.
For the sad souls who try to make a living this way and have no savings or other income, it is very likely awful and precarious. It is the difference between a teenager babysitting to pick up some money for extras vs. working fulltime in a daycare facility to earn a meager living. Or like someone stringing together three parttime jobs at different fastfood restaurants to make enough to live on - theoretically possible but unbelievably difficult and exhausting in practice.
We can all sympathize with those whose 401k plans were wiped out in 2008, got laid off at an age too young for Social Security and too old to be easily employable, and bought a house at the top of the market which then lost value and erased their equity. Mix in a divorce, and lives are often ruined.
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This happened to a smart, hard-working grad school friend who for a couple of decades earned a six figure income in industry. He got divorced, got laid off at that awkward age, and couldn’t find new employment of the sort to which he was accustomed and for which he had excellent experience and training.
This friend ended up on Taiwan using his Ph.D. to teach English and business subjects to university students, very likely as a poorly paid adjunct prof. My guess, he was as unhappy as some workampers because he was underemployed and scraping a living, an early casualty of the gig economy. This kind of personal catastrophe happens, and is sad to see.
