In former times, Salton Sea was a very popular tourist attraction and a paradise for fishing aficionados. Nowadays, the forlorn landscapes surrounding it seem to mirror a lost America, of an era in which everything seemed possible and accessible for all citizens. These sites give us another, unflattering image, that of a nation more divided and unequal than ever. They are like those other areas of dire poverty that are to be found all across the United States, a Third World of their own, where the most destitute live, for lack of a better alternative.