How can you tell if Americans are "poor"?

Trump and Bezos hate each other

HOAs aren't common everywhere. They're most common as either condo associations (which are basically unavoidable because of common areas) or in newer suburbs especially in the South and West. Older suburbs predate them. My American grandmother, by the way, was proud of having a dryer and used it always because hanging out her laundry reminded her of growing up in a tenement. When I moved to the USA I learnt that there were times of the year I couldn't really hang laundry outside, notably pollen season. Summer sunshine is rough on clothes, too.

A lot of TV is useless for class and poverty markers for a couple of reasons. One, things are laid out (especially for sitcoms) for ease of filming on a sound stage. This is why apartments and houses always have a two-room or open plan living room/kitchen layout, and no entry or separate dining room, and you can't judge by the size of anything. On Roseanne, you could tell they were meant to be working class by the furniture and decor.

Accents and class are tricky. Regional accents are fading in younger generations. They're more likely to survive in the working class. This is not true for older people who have stronger regional accents. You will find some people who have worked to scrub a stigmatised regional accent (interestingly, Trump aside, a strong New York City accent is often considered a working class marker. Notice that his kids don't speak like that.)

Reality TV can sometimes give you a better peek into actual homes than anything fictional.

Urban, suburban, and rural poverty all look very different, too. Here in the Northeast, urban poor to me means living in an apartment or row house, for example, and you can tell poor row houses from wealthy ones just as you can in the UK. Poor neighbourhoods in Philadelphia or Baltimore often have trash strewn around, vacant lots, random decrepit houses. In rural areas you can have quite a lot of land as it's so cheap, but your house might be close to falling down. The suburbs often conceal poverty.

The Channel 4 programme "Around the world in 80 weighs" went to America, not sure which state. There was a lovely mum and daughter who were overweight but lived in a good desert so there was literally nowhere to get fresh food and very limited options for home cooking. All the food providers were takeaways so it was a choice of driving and hour to a supermarket or getting McDonald's for everyone for $10 or similar. It was really sad.
At least in this country most people can generally access a decent supermarket.

It might be visible to a great many people in an average older suburb. Fences tend not to be terribly high, people don't grow hedges all that much, and residential lots are smaller than they would be in far flung burbs. In addition, closer in suburbs (in my neck of the woods anyway) have alleys running at the back of the houses, parallel to the streets, and the garages open onto them. Your back yard would be visible over the fence from the alley.

In theory, people could easily have a clothes line in a backyard in the majority of single family residential areas, which are not HOAs. I had one older neighbour who used to always hang out her bedding (in summer). She often regretted it, as the neighborhood was full of lovely, mature trees, birds, and squirrels. As she got older, she stopped hanging her bedding out because it was more difficult to carry wet washing up the basement stairs to the exit and out into the yard than to plonk it in the dryer. It was also likely to come back in smelling of BBQ and firepit smoke.

Otoh, people have no issue draping towels or swimwear over a front porch rail after a trip to the neighborhood public pool in summer. And Americans don't obsess over privacy the way Brits do - people leave their curtains or blinds open at night, and fences, walls, and hedges around front gardens are rare in many areas. Public loos have cubicle walls and doors that have horrified many a British poster here on MN when they visited the US for a holiday.

Travelled a lot in USA with work, so industrial cities and towns. Mainly mid west, but some in Georgia.

as others have said land is cheap so houses are on bigger plots than uk. You also have to consider that it has always been so even through their own “Industrial Revolution”. No back to back.

but once you go into a poor area in USA you see it immedately- the houses are clap board and run down, not recently painted, flimsy add ons, and just like in poorer areas of uk, there’s old cars, furniture piled up outside form previous tenants

lets be really clear about USA, when you get poor you rewlly get destitute very quickly. You need a job to get health care. Social support and welfare is poor , food banks started there long before they came into regular use in uk. So when you get poor, you get ill, loose housing, and the whole shit show comes crashing down.

in mid west I worked with employed people who in the VAST MAJORITY really really believe that everyone has same chances in life and if you fall on hard times it’s your fault and you, not them and society, are responsible for getting yourself out of it. They cannot understand the concept of nhs, NI, and worse than that they see it as an extreme socialist concept .

if you’re poor in these places god help you as know one else will.

and all of that doesn’t make for good TV viewing.

another thing you need to understand about USA is that the majority of its citizens believe the USA is the greatest country in the world, they do not criticise or knock it, even the ones that don’t like the current government will still not criticise USA overall. They aren’t great at having it pointed out that there are kinder socaieties in Europe, that gun control is possible etc etc. so agian, TV is not made to show the down sides of USA and that includes portrayal of abject poverty unless it has a happy ending or is a documentary by left leaning journalists.

when you see a poor person in USA you know it; destitute. When you see poor houses in USA you know it ;destitute

There isn’t the class system. People define themselves by what they achieve - wealthy, or not. The more wealthy the higher the sense of entitlement, superiority and self congratulations that only they are responsible for that.

And then we can throw in the impact of slavery - that was USA lower class- even white poor ranked above them, and from what I see in a lot of places the colour of your skin still means you’re treated like that irrespective of what your circumstances are.

nope, doesn’t make good TV showing americas poor.

You have to much time on your hands.

My 600lb Life is a fascinating insight into lower class American homes/lifestyles.

It's becoming a thing in the UK too . My neighbour tumble drys all the time even in hot days ! Their choice , their electric bill. I've rarely seen washing out on lines on the street where I live and my house backs onto their gardens . I think it's just laziness.

Considering many Americans work long hours and may have multiple jobs, they are more concerned with keeping them and putting their clothes in a washer and dryer than wasting time going through the task of line-drying clothes.

American here. The Pursuit of Happyness, Spanglish, and Good Will Hunting are a few movies that depict the lifestyle of the American working class. TV shows like Rosanne, Shameless (US version), King of Queens, Superstore, The Simpsons, The Middle and Married with Children are also ones focus on the working class demographic.

Typical signs of American working class often distinguished by not having college degree, rather than by occupation or income. Whereas in the UK, class markers are a bit different. For example, you can be WC and wealthy.

"Good Times" portrayed a low income, working class family. They lived in a 2 bedroom apartment, parents had one and daughter had the other; the two sons had to sleep on the sofa bed. They talked about money issues all the time.

It’s such a good show. I don’t think she worked there all the time. Their home was ok though, tidy.

Bus trips can be quite hair-raising, depending on the neighborhoods they traverse, but the same goes for cities everywhere. There are parts of Dublin I wouldn't travel through on a bus.

Walmart would be a dream for some poor people. One of the big problems for poor people in the US is they are in "food deserts" and generally only have access to corner stores, etc (which are much more expensive).

Definition of "food desert": A food desert is a geographic area where residents have limited access to healthy and affordable food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. These areas are often found in low-income communities, particularly communities of color

I wouldn’t shop there if I lived in America. But going there, things were so cheap. And things we do not have here, so much choice (cough mixture I wouldn’t even get going to the doctor here after coughing nonstop for three weeks).

But the downside is that in the end we wouldn’t want most things here, as they contain so much dangerous crap. Food, drinks, makeup, medicines and clothes. Substances that are forbidden here for a very good reason.

I hardly ever line dry. I work 52 hrs a week and my DD27 is neurodivergent and does not like the feel of line dried. Having said that we create about 4 loads a week max inc bedding and towels. My electric bill is £65 a month.

I'm not lazy.

@couldvbeenworse Oh Yes she did, didn't she..thank you. So does that make them working or middle? i think the scriptwriters were definitely intending to portray them as 'working class', they certainly didnt have the shiny lawn but their home was 'decent' or 'respectable' but without everything matching and they had an old jallopy.

I would never shop at Walmart. I'm glad I have never lived anywhere that had only a Walmart and no other options.

See also Chicago blue collar accents, Hispanic accents, Italian-American accents, Polish-Americans, and more.

British son and American dil in upmarket Long Island 'burb. It has been 'suggested' to them that their expensively landscaped front garden is not expensively landscaped enough. Also it has been noticed that they are the only house on the street without a flagpole and American flag. As a result they are thinking of moving further along to part of the Hamptons where plenty of British live, and it's less judgemental.

I love Walmart.

She worked for the Church pastor.

Along with the big houses, I’ve also noticed ‘poor’ people tucking into steaks on these shows. Is meat a lot cheaper in the USA? People on the breadline don’t tend to be buying fillet steak.

The Middle family!

Young Sheldon's family?? i think they are working class, i cant remember what the mum does but the dad was a football coach and they talked about money or the lack of it a lot.

The Responder addresses that very well.