The Newest Homeless：Struggling Young Adults 

By SUSAN SANLNY

　SEATTLE －Duane Taylor was studying in a community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs. Then he found, and lost, a second job. And a third.

　Now, with what he calls “lowered standards” and a tenuous new position at a fast-food restaurant, Mr. Taylor, 24, does not make enough to rent, or share, an apartment. He sleeps in a homeless shelter, except when his sister lets him sleep on her couch.

　“I'd like to be able to support myself,” Mr. Taylor said. “That's my only goal.”

　Across the United States, tens of thousands of underemployed and jobless young people are struggling to house themselves in the wake of the recession, which has left workers between the ages of 18 and 24 with the highest unemployment rate of all Americans.

　Those who can move back home with their parents －the so-called boomerang set － are the lucky ones. That is not an option for those whose families have been hit hard by the economy. Without a stable address, they are a group that stays elusive, hoping to avoid the lasting stigma of public homelessness.

　These young adults are the new face of a national homeless population, one that poverty experts say is growing. Yet the problem is mostly invisible. Most cities and states have not made special efforts to identify young adults, who tend to shy away from ordinary shelters out of fear of being victimized by an older, chronically homeless population.
　The Obama administration has begun an initiative with nine communities, most of them big cities, to seek out those between 18 and 24 who are without a consistent home address.
　“Years ago, you didn't see what looked like people of college age sitting and waiting to talk to a crisis worker because they are homeless on the street,” said Andrae Bailey, the executive director of the Community Food and outreach Center, one of the largest charitable organizations in Florida. “Now that's a normal thing.”
　In Washington, Lance Fuller, a 26-year-old with a degree in journalism, spent the end of November packing up a two-bedroom apartment he could no longer afford after being laid off. Mr. Fuller said he had been unable to keep a job for more than eight months since graduating from the University of Florida in 2010.
　“Thankfully, I have a girlfriend who is willing to let me stay with her until I get back on my feet again,” said Mr. Fuller, who writes a blog, Voices of a Lost Generation. “It's really hard for people in my generation not to feel completely defeated by this economy.”
　Mr. Taylor said he felt lucky when he could find a coveted space at Roots, a shelter for young adults in a church basement. Such shelters are rare.
　For generations, services for the homeless were directed to two groups：dependent children and older people. There was scant attention focused on young adults.
　Anna Wiley, 20, and her boyfriend, Bobby Jollineau, 24, spent several nights at Roots in December, but they were unable to get in one night in November. “We ended up sleeping outside,” Mr. Jollineau said.
　Asked whether she could go to her parents' home, Ms. Wiley said that her father is unemployed and that her mother works in a deli, making about as little as she does.
　Across town, Roman Tano, 20, woke up recently at YouthCare's James W. Ray Orion Center, another shelter for young adults that offers training programs. Three months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He rented a room and set out with his resume (expertise:fund-raising).
　But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, “I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life,” he said. “I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay ward.”
　Mr. Tano had been staying at the shelter for a month. He had a new job as a canvasser for an environmental organization.
　“After I get my paycheck,” he said brightly, “I should be on my way.”

中譯：
　　泰勒在一波裁員潮中失去了工作，當時他正在一所社區學院就讀，而且住在自己的地方。後來他兩度找到，卻又失去了工作。
　　２４歲的泰勒說，他已經「降低自己的標準」。他目前在一家速食店工作，然而不僅飯碗隨時可能不保，收入且不足以單獨租下或與他人合租一間公寓。除了胞姊偶爾收留，讓他睡在長沙發上之外，他平常睡在街友收容所。泰勒說：「我只希望能養活自己，別無所求。」
　　在全美各地，數以萬計低度就業及失業的年輕人必須在經濟衰退之際，找到棲身之處。這波衰退使１８到２４歲的年輕族群失業率高居各年齡層之冠。
　　可以搬回家與父母同住的年輕人又稱還巢族，算是比較幸運的一群。然而對全家受到經濟嚴重衝擊的年輕人來說，他們可沒有這種選擇餘地。他們居無定所，而且行蹤不定，以免被公開貼上街友（無家可歸）的永久烙印。
　　這些年輕成人是全美無家可歸族的新面孔。專家說，他們的人數有增無減。然而這個問題大致上並不顯眼。美國各州及城市主管當局大多不會特別調查這個族群，而這些年輕人通常也會刻意避開一般的收容所，唯恐被年紀比較大的長期無家可歸族欺騙。
　　歐巴馬政府已經與以大城市為主的９個社區聯手展開一項計畫，試圖找出沒有固定住址的１８至２４歲年輕人。
　　佛羅里達州社區食物及外展中心是佛州最具規模的慈善組織之一，執行長貝里說：「幾年以前，你看不到大學年紀的年輕人坐在那兒等著與社工交談。他們因為流落街頭而被迫如此。如今，這已經成為常態。」
　　在華府，去年１１月底，２６歲並擁有新聞學位的福勒收拾他再也住不起的一間２房公寓，因為他被裁員。他說，２０１０年自佛羅里達大學畢業以來，他沒有一個工作能夠保住８個月。
　　闢有個人部落格「失落一代的心聲」的福勒說：「還好，我的女友願意暫時收留我，直到我再度自立更生為止。屬於我這個世代的人真的很難不感覺已經被當前的經濟徹底打敗。」
　　（本文一開始提到的）泰勒說，能在設在教堂地下室的年輕人收容所「根」找到一位難求的棲身處，他自認相當幸運，類似的收容所很少。
　　數世代以來美國對街友的服務主要針對兩種人：無法自立的孩子及老年人，很少注意年輕成人。
　　去年１２月，２０歲的安娜．魏里與２４歲的男友裘里尼奧一起在「根」度過幾個夜晚，１１月卻有一晚無法擠入。他說：「我們只好露宿街頭。」
　　詢以能否回家與父母同住，魏里說：她的父親失業中，母親則在熟食店打工，收入差不多跟她一樣少。
　　在（西雅圖）市區的另一邊，２０歲的塔諾某日上午在提供職訓的年輕人收容機構「青年關愛協會」所屬詹姆士．雷伊獵戶座庇護中心醒來。３個月前他因失業而搬出老家達拉斯的一間公寓。他賣掉他的豐田汽車，然後在太平洋濱的美國西北部找工作。他租下一個房間，寄出個人的履歷表（專長：募款）。
　　他說，２０００美元的存款用完時，「我落得必須睡在街頭，這是我這輩子頭一次如此狼狽。我必須不斷走動，好讓身體保持暖和」。
　　塔諾已經在庇護中心住了一個月，他已經找到工作，為一個環保組織擔任募款員。
　　他愉快的說：「等我拿到薪水支票，應該可以離開這兒了。」

Browser Wars Flare Again, This time on Little Screens~~By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Browser Wars Flare Again, This time on Little Screens

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

　　SAN FRANCISCO ─ Web browsers have become a crucial business for tech companies like Google and Microsoft. That is because they are now the entry point not just to the Web but to everything stored online, like Web apps and photos.
　　And as the cloud grows more integral, both for businesses and people, the browser companies are engaged in a new battle to win our allegiance that will affect how we use the Internet.
　　It's an echo of the so-called browser wars of the 1990s, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator fought for dominance hon the personal computer. This time, though, the struggle is shaping up to be over which company will control the mobile world ─ with browsers on smartphones  and tablets. Entrenched businesses are at stake. Google's browserbased business apps, for instance, threaten Microsoft's desktop software, and mobile Web apps threaten Apple's App Store.
　　“Twenty years ago, we didn't know how the Internet was going to get used by people, and we for sure didn't know about mobile or tablets,” said Marc Andreessen, a founder of the first major browser, Netscape Navigator. “Mobile is a whole new level of reinvention, so it feels like we're in the most fertile time of invention since the early'90s.”
　　Browser give Web companies more control over how people use their products, and data about how people use the Web. Fasterbrowsing leads to more Web activity, which leads to more revenue for Web companies.
　　Google's Chrome browser, for example, makes Google searches faster and simpler because people can enter search queries directly into the address bar. And its apps ─ like Gmail, Drive for file storage and Docs for word processing ─ are all accessible through any browser.
　　In the biggest disruption to the market in 15 years, Chrome last spring toppled Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world. It now has 36 percent of the golbal market, while Internet Explorer's share has dived to 31 percent.
　　“Suddenly now, the browser has become the interface for the cloud more broadly, not just for traditional Web sites,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School.
　　In their search for dollars, browser companies are redesigning their products to follow consumers to mobile devices, social networks and cloud-based apps.
　　For exampls, new mobile browsers let people swipe through tabs with their fingers, automatically resize or zoom in on Web pages so they fit a phone's screen and load pages faster than older mobile browsers. Some also sync with other devices, so things like most-visited Web sites, passwords and credit card numbers are available everywhere.
　　Technologists say that mobile browsers will improve when HTML5, the new set of tools for designing Web sites that has been in development for years, becomes pervasive. That is because its technologies enable Web sites to be as functional and visually rich as apps are today, with features like advanced video or the ability to read a Web site offline.
　　Browser companies say their goal is to do their job well enough that people forget about the browser. “People don't care that much about browsers,” said Ryan Gavin, general manager for Internet Explorer. “They only care about what's on the Web.”

中譯：
「小螢幕上陣  瀏覽器開火」

　　對谷歌和微軟這些高科技公司而言，網頁瀏覽器已成為一項至關重要的業務。這是因為現在瀏覽器不僅是網路的入口點，更是儲存在線上的一切東西的入口點，如網路應用程式與照片。
　　無論對企業或個人而言，雲端技術都日益整合，瀏覽器公司也隨之展開了一場爭取用戶忠誠度的戰爭，從而影響用戶的網路使用。
　　這是繼1990年代爆發所謂瀏覽器大戰之後的戰爭再臨，當時「網路探索者」與「網景領航員」為搶奪個人電腦市場而展開一場爭霸戰。而這次戰爭則是為奪取行動世界的控制權，勝者將在智慧手機與平板電腦使用的瀏覽器上稱王。例如，以谷歌瀏覽器為基礎的商業應用程式與微軟的桌上型電腦軟體勢不兩立，而行動網路應用程式也令蘋果的應用程式商店飽受威脅。
　　成功開發第一個重大瀏覽器「網景領航員」的網景公司創辦人安德森說：「20年前，我們不了解人們會如何使用網路，當時我們對行動通訊(手機)或平板電腦自然也一無所知。手機是個全新的再發明，因此感覺上，我們正處於90年代初期以來最豐碩的發明時期。」
　　瀏覽器讓網路公司更能控制人們如何使用他們的產品，並取得更多關於人們如何使用網路的數據資料。瀏覽速度變快可使網路活動增多，為網路公司帶來更多收入。谷歌的Chrome瀏覽器即為一例。它讓谷歌的搜尋更快、更簡便，因為使用者可將搜索查詢直接輸入網址列。它的一些應用程式，如Gmail信箱、儲存文件的Drive、負責文字處理的Docs，都可經由任何瀏覽器取得。
　　去年春天Chrome將網路探索者從寶座上踹下，成為全球最受歡迎的瀏覽器，演出15年來最大一次市場篡位。目前Chrome全球市占率達36%，網路探索者的市占率則跌至31%。
　　哈佛商學院教授約費說：「突然間，瀏覽器變成是更廣大的雲端的介面，不再僅是傳統網路的介面。」
　　為追求獲利，瀏覽器公司正重新設計產品，以追隨消費者進入行動裝置、社交網絡、以雲端為基礎的應用程式中。
　　例如，新的行動瀏覽器可讓使用者以手指進行水平移位，自動放大縮小或拉近推遠網頁以符合手機螢幕尺寸，以及下載網頁速度較舊式行動瀏覽器為快。有些瀏覽器還可與其他裝置同步，以便隨時隨地取得自己最常進入的網站、密碼、信用卡號碼。
　　技術專家指出，當HTML5變得十分普及時，行動瀏覽器將獲得進一步改善。HTML5已開發多年，是用來設計網站的一套新工具。因為HTML5的技術可讓網站變得和現今的應用程式一樣，不僅功能強大而且視感豐富，具備先進的視頻或是離線瀏覽某一網站的功能。
　　瀏覽器公司說，他們的目標是把他們的工作做到盡善盡美，讓使用者忘了瀏覽器的存在。網路探索者總經理賈文說：「人們並不怎麼關心瀏覽器，只在乎網路上有些什麼。」

In Changing Korea, Questions of Identity

(Seekng to redefine what it means to be Korean.)

By CHOE SANG-HUN

　　SEOUL, South Korea ─ Jasmine Lee realizes just how Korean she's become when she begins speaking the language, forgetting that her Filipino mother on the phone can't understand her. But she is reminded of the limits of assimilation when Koreans, impressed by her fluency, comment, “You shound more Korean than Koreans do.”
　　Ms. Lee, 35, who was born Jasmine Bacurnay in the Philippines, made history in April when she became the first naturalized citizen ─ and the first nonethnic Korean ─ to win a seat in South Korea's National Assembly. Her election reflected one of the most significant demographic shifts in the country's modern history, a change she says “Koreans understand with  their brain, but have yet to embrace with their heart.”
　　Only a decade ago, school textbooks still urged South Koreans to take pride in being of “one blood” and ethnically homogeneous. While the foreignborn population is still small compared with that of countries with a tradition of immigration, it's enough to challenge how South Koreans see themselves.
　　“It's time to redefine a Korean,” said Kim Yi-seon, chief researcher on multiculturalism at the government-financed Korean Women's Development Institute. “Traditionally, a Korean meant someone born to Korean parents in Korea, who speaks Korean and has Korean looks and nationality. People don't think someone is a Korean just because he has a Korean citizenship.”
　　Among the factors driving this development is the influx of women from Southeast Asia who have come to marry rural South Korean men, who have difficulty  attracting Korean women willing to embrace country life. The number of marriage migrants grew to 211,000 last year from 127,000 in 2007, most of them women from Vietnam and other poorer Asian countries.
　　In industrialtowns, young men from Bangladesh and Pakistan toil at jobs shunned by Koreans as too dirty and dangerous, providing cheap labor that South Korea's export-driven economy needs to compete with China. The number of such workers more than doubled to 553,000 last year, from 260,000 in 2007 ─ not counting those who overstay their visas and work illegally.
　　One of every 10 marriages in South Korea now involves a foreign spouse. Although the overall number of schoolchildren in South Korea has been declining ─ to 6.7 million this year from 7.7 million in 2007 ─ as a result of one of the world's lowest birthrates, the number of multiethnic students has been climbing by 6,000 a year.
　　“A multicultural society is not just coming; it's already here,” Ms. Lee, a member of the governing Saenuri Party, said.
　　But, after Ms. Lee's election, anti-immigration activists warned that “poisonous weeds” from abroad were “corrupting the Korean bloodline” and “exterminating the Korean nation” and urged political parties to “purify” themselves by expelling Ms. Lee from the National Assembly.
　　Prime Minister Kim Hwangsik has condemned such xenophobic outbursts as “pathological,” and he urged South Koreans to take the transition to a multicultural society “not as a choice, but as an imperatice.”
　　But the government itself stands accused of fostering xenophobia by requiring foreigners who come to South Korea to teach English to undergo H.I.V. tests while not requiring the same of South Koreans in the same jobs.
　　“Back in 1995, people adored me for saying 'hello' and 'thank you' in Korean,” Ms. Lee said. “beginning around 2000, however, people started looking at me suspiciously. On the bus, they'd ask, 'Why are you here？'”
　　Ms. Lee thinks South Korea still has a long way to go. “In a recent program supposedly aimed at fostering multicultural harmony, organizers divided participants into one bus for 'Koreans' and another bus for 'multicultural families,'” she said. “I envision a society that doesn't need a label like 'multicultural.'”

中譯：
變動中的南韓  出現認同問題

　　來自菲律賓的李賈斯敏(譯音)用韓語跟老家的媽媽講電話，竟然忘了媽媽根本聽不懂她說些什麼，她這才理解到自己韓國化已有多深。不過當南韓人對於她韓語如此流利感到驚奇，並說道：「妳的韓語聽起來比韓國人還標準。」時，卻也提醒了她，民族融合畢竟有其限度。
　　李賈斯敏35歲，出生於菲律賓，本名賈斯敏‧巴庫奈；她今年四月創造了一項歷史，成為第一位當選國會議員的非韓裔歸化公民。她的當選反映出這個國家現代史上最重要的人口結構變化，她指出對於這項轉變，「南韓人腦袋裡已很清楚，但還沒有敞開心胸擁抱它。」
　　僅僅在十年前，學校教科書仍要求南韓人以自己的「單一血統」及種族同質性為傲。雖然與有引進移民傳統的國家相比，南韓人口中出生在他國的非韓族裔仍然為數不多，卻已足以挑戰南韓人對於本身身分認同問題的看法。
　　政府資助的韓國女性政策研究院多文化融合理論主任研究員金益善(音譯)說：「韓國人一詞該重新定義了。傳統上，韓國人指的是生在韓國，父母都是韓國人，說韓語，有韓國人的長相和國籍。僅僅具有韓國國籍，人們不會當他是韓國人。」
　　推動此種情勢的因素之一，是東南亞的婦女流入南韓，嫁給南韓農村的男子，因為這些男人很難吸引南韓女性一同去過鄉村的生活。婚姻移民的人數從2007年的12萬7千人，增加到去年的21萬1千人；這些女性大都來自越南及其他比較貧窮亞洲國家。
　　在一些工業城鎮裡，也有一些來自孟加拉與巴基斯坦的年輕男性，從事那些南韓人不願做、嫌它太髒而且危險的勞力工作，也為南韓這個靠出口帶動的經濟體，提供了與中國大陸競爭時必要的廉價勞力。這類勞工人數在2007年時為26萬人，到去年已達55萬3千人，增加一倍多，還不包括那些簽證逾期仍留下來非法打工的人。
　　現在南韓每十件婚姻中便有一件有外籍配偶。雖然南韓的出生率是世界最低者之一，以致學童總人數持續減少，從2007年時的770萬人減少到今年的670萬人，但混血兒學童的人數卻每年增加6千人。
　　身為執政黨新世界黨黨員的李賈斯敏說：「一個多文化的社會不是即將到來，而是已經在這裡了。」
　　然而在李賈斯敏當選後，一些反移民運動人士警告說，來自外國的「毒草」正在「敗壞南韓的血統」，且「正在使南韓亡族滅種」；他們並要求各政黨將李賈斯敏逐出國會，來「純化」自己。
　　總理金滉植已譴責這種莫名的仇外論述為「病態」，並要求南韓民眾把這種朝向多文化社會的變遷，「並非只當作一項選擇，而是一項使命」。
　　然而政府本身卻被外界指責是在培養仇外心理，因為政府要求到南韓來教英文的外國人須通過愛滋病的檢驗，擔任相同工作的南韓人卻不須如此。
　　李賈斯敏表示，「回想1995年時，人們會因為我能用韓語說『哈囉』和『謝謝你』而表示讚賞。然而大約從2000年起，人們開始用疑忌的眼光來看我。在公車上，他們會問我『妳幹嘛來這裡？』」
　　李賈斯敏認為南韓還有一段長路要走。她說：「在最近一項用意在促進多元文化和諧的活動中，主持人把參與的南韓人士分配到一輛巴士，將『多文化家庭』歸到另一輛巴士。我期盼能見到一個不需要貼上『多文化』標籤的社會。」

There's No Place Like Home

　"I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm going to see the world."
　So vows George Bailey in Frank Capra's 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life." But despite years of trying, he never does leave Bedford Falls. The story follows the tribulations of George, played by Jimmy Stewart, as he realizes how much he values his roots in that crummy little town (with help from an angel named Clarence).
　Many of Jack Kerouac's characters, on the other hand, fled small-town values. In "On the Road," his seminal 1957 novel of rootless beatniks racing across America in an amphetamine rush of jazz and poetry, mobility is sacred. "There was nowhere to go but everywhere," Kerouac wrote, "so just keep on rolling under the stars."
　As David Brooks pointed out in The Times, the Capra and Kerouac worldviews have long been in conflict. Humans have a natural restlessness that driven them across continents for millennia. But leaving home can be emotionally devastating.
　Mr. Brooks stressed that science supports Capra─for many people, roots, community and family are pre-eminent. “The happiness  research,” Mr. Brooks wrote, “It's a Wonderful Life' is correct and 'On the Road' is an illusion.”
　And though we live in an ever more mobile world, with many people migrating to pursue economic opportunities, homesickness is a scourge.
　Susan J. Matt, the author of “Homesickness: An American History,” wrote in The Times that moving extracts a wrenching emotional toll, despite the benign-sounding 19th-century clinical name for homesickness: “nostalgia.”
　Today, the emphasis on opportunity makes homesickness a secret. “This silence,” she wrote, “makes mobility appear deceptively easy.” Yet one study found that Mexican immigrants in the United States suffered 40 percent more depression and anxiety than their relatives remaining at home.
　And as for the “comforting illusion” of technology? “If they could truly vanquish homesickness and make us citizens of the world,” Ms. Matt writes, “Skype, Facebook, cellphones and e-mail would have cured a pain that has been around since 'The Odyssey.'”
　Americans celebrate rootlessness in their national mythology (Kerouac is but one writer in that tradition). It is, after all, a nation of immigrants.
　But those myths may be fading. Todd G. Buchholz and Victoria Buchhoiz wrote in The Times that “young Americans have become rick-averse and sedentary,” and despite an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, few want to leave their hometowns in search of better jobs. Indeed, with social media, few want to leave their homes at all.
　“Maybe it's time,” they wrote, “to yank out the power cords, pump up the flat bicycle tires and even reopen Route 66 － whatever it takes to get our kids back on the road.”
　But young Americans may be heeding the lessons of Kerouac himself, who died a shattered alcoholic in 1969,without ever having put down real roots. Toward the end of his life, Kerouac often dreamed of Lowell, Massachusetts, the small New England city not unlike Bedford Falls, where he was raised.
　“A very eerie, recurrent dream,” he said, “but it always makes me happy when I wake  up.”

........................................KEVIN DELANEY

中譯：
「鄉愁愁煞人　還是家最好」

　　「把這殘破小鎮的塵土從我腳上抖掉，我將邁向世界。」
　　這是大導演卡普拉1946年鉅作「風雲人物」片中男主角貝利的誓言。但儘管經過多年嘗試，他始終未曾當真離開這個名叫貝德福瀑布的小鎮。劇情是敘述由詹姆斯史都華飾演的主人翁喬治在歷經磨難後，終於領會到他有多麼珍惜自己深植在這殘破小鎮的根﹝在名叫克拉倫斯的天使協助之下﹞。
　　另一方面，小說家凱魯亞克筆下則有不少人物甩開了出身小城的價值觀。他1957年發表的傳世小說「旅途上」，描述垮掉的一代如何踏遍全美國，沉溺於安非他命、爵士樂與詩詞，標榜流浪的神聖。他寫道：「處處無家處處家，滿天星斗蕩天涯。」布魯克斯在紐約時報專欄中指出，卡普拉與凱魯亞克的世界觀一直相互衝突。人類有不甘於安定的本性，數千年來它一直驅動人們渡洋跨洲。然而離鄉背井終究令人情為之傷。
　　布魯克斯強調，科學理論支持卡普拉的觀點─對許多人而言，根、社區及家庭的確意義重大。他寫道：「針對幸福所做的研究顯示，『風雲人物』的觀點是對的，『旅途上』則是一種幻覺。」而且雖然我們生活在流動性越來越大的世界裡，許多人遷往他處尋求經濟機會，思鄉病仍不時鞭笞著遊子的心靈。
　　「思鄉病：一部美國歷史」一書作者蘇珊‧馬特在時報撰文指出，播遷往往引發磨人的情緒傷痛，儘管19世紀時臨床醫學給思鄉病起了個好聽的名字：「鄉愁」。
　　時至今日，由於人們強調尋求機會，逼得大家把鄉愁深藏心底。馬特寫道：「緘默使流浪顯得更為輕易，卻是自欺欺人。」一項研究發現，美國的墨西哥移民憂鬱與焦慮的程度比老家的親戚高出40%。
　　科技所帶來的「安撫幻覺」是否有效？馬特寫道：「如果它當真能克服思鄉病，使大家都成為世界公民，那麼Skype、臉書、手機及電郵早就能治好從『奧狄賽』以來就揮之不去的傷痛了。」
　　美國人在自己的國家神話中頌揚「失根」之美﹝凱魯亞克便是繼承此種傳統的作家之一﹞。畢竟這是個移民組成的國家。
　　但這些神話或許正在褪色。陶德‧布希霍茲與維多利亞‧巴克霍爾茲在時報撰文指出，「美國年輕人已更傾向於逃避風險且安土重遷」；儘管失業率高達8.3%，卻沒多少人到外地去尋求較好的工作。事實上，由於社群媒體普及，連出門的人都越來越少。
　　他們寫道：「或許現在正是拔掉電源線，把腳踏車胎打足氣，甚至重新開放66號大道的時候了─只要能把我們的孩子重新趕回馬路上，怎麼做都行。」
　　但美國年輕人或許會注意到凱魯亞克自身的教訓；他於1969年死於嚴重酗酒，完全沒有紮下真實的根基。在他生命最後的日子裡，凱魯亞克經常夢到麻州洛威爾市這個他生長的地方，這個新英格蘭小城跟貝福德瀑布鎮其實沒什麼差別。
　　他寫道：「這是個怪異卻一再出現的夢境，然而每當醒來時，總令我感到愉悅。」