"Trailer trash" remains one of the last unquestioned relics of political incorrectness in our nation. This slur rests on fundamental cultural assumptions about people who live in trailer parks: that they are simple-minded, lawless, reckless with fertility, and indifferent to the very behaviors that mark as them worthy of ridicule. As a toxic slur, the "trailer trash" brand works to stigmatize an entire category of people marginalizing them from mainstream society.
During the late 1990s, the two of us spent considerable time at the kitchen tables of parents raising children in rural trailer parks. Virtually all of these parents worked full time in manufacturing and service jobs in which wages have been stagnant for decades. They embarked on mobile home ownership just as financial giants like Countrywide opened a gateway to homeownership for low income households by offering high-interest loans with no down payment. Trailer park residency was not a lifestyle choice but the consequence of financial realities and a dream that homeownership might offer their children a kind of stability, security, and respect they lacked in their own adverse childhoods. Today, some 12 million Americans live in one of our nation's 45,000 rural trailer parks.
Comment: While the issue of elder abuse in nursing homes is horrible and needs to be investigated, it seems that the system is perhaps currently set up to make it too easy to make accusations and collect fines. It's unknown whether Trump's rollback of penalties is going to do anything to help the issue, and one would hope it wouldn't leave residents of the facilities more vulnerable.
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