How can you tell if Americans are "poor"?

Because accent can be closely connected to racial demographic and is also used to stereotype people within demographics.

Two examples are Ebonics and southern drawls, less widely known is a south Boston accent pointing to poor Irish immigrants.

Yeah ok. And I’m sure someone who was a healthcare professional in a different area… say Detroit, or Gary, IN may just have a different list of indicators than the one you listed.

I'm not sure about IRL but on shows, if the detective needs to go in a shady part of town, for example, there will be kids outside or lots of kids in a kitchen getting yelled at (too many kids without activities means poor). People loitering (means they don't have jobs or activities) and of course they speak poorly and there will be creepy stairways (walkups) to apartments or trailer homes.

I think IRL people spend a lot of time at bus stops because they do work several jobs, probably speak English as a second language, and live in tidy medium sized homes with several generations and a community.

I was totally confused watching Rosanne as a child… but there was a thing in one episode about her being so poor she bought own brand cereal and just put it in a branded box…

I was baffled because they had two, TWO?!? bathrooms the girls shares a jack and Jill en-suite. I could only dream of such decadence 😅😅😅

Accents in the US are generally not predictors of class, as I wrote above. No one in the US would comment about someone's pronunciation of vowel sounds, for instance. Trump (the loathsome rat) grew up in a very wealthy family and his accent is indistinguishable from that of many New Yorkers. Biden comes from a more modest background but there is nothing in his speech to suggest a particular class. Just to use two examples of people that most in the UK have heard.

In the US the tumble dryers are more for expedience too. Electricity is cheap, tumble dryers are huge and they do dry clothes in about 20 minutes without ruining them. I did some huge loads at SILs and she encouraged me to put in anything and everything and it was all fine. I don't know what the temperatures were since they were all "regular" load, jumbo load and delicates. She also washes loads and loads of towels and sheets and is done in no time.

@saltinesandcoffeecups - I said 'are more likely to vote Republican' that statement clearly is not suggesting there are no poor Democrats! There are poor people in every political persuasion!

So there are no poor democrats then… well goodness that’s great news.

I think we could do with some HOA style action over here sometimes!

@saltinesandcoffeecups - I hesitated to post these things. The top are very much my experience working in health care. The bottom are what I think was actually the opposite of what people often assume.

The fact is military recruitment, lack of access to health care etc etc etc is a staple of poverty in the US.

One would think there would be a limit to how many stereotypes could be fit into one post … clearly not.

This is a classic example of both confirmation bias and ridiculous all rolled up 🤣

Watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for a deliberately non-glossy view of America. Two of the characters (Mac and Charlie) are from working class backgrounds and you see their family homes and their parents - living in non-gentrified 19th century terraces that look comparable to UK homes. I don’t know if you can tell anything from their accents and dress but certainly the living conditions are unlike anything else I’ve seen on US tv (that’s not meant to be specifically about the underclass/poor).

That’s a loaded question.

In America:

[Based on my experience working in healthcare...]

• Teeth (sometimes, definitely more so in the southern states)
• Hair (sometimes)
• Furniture
• Speech - grammar with speech in particular
• Access to therapies for children like speech therapy
• Many poor Americans have what we'd consider a need for speech therapy
• Whether they have access to their own laundry or use a laundry-mat (NYC and urban centres that are $ are probably an exception to this!)
• Type of childcare they can access (neighbourhood lady with no education, taking 6+++ kids in from locals for pittance, vs more standardized daycare, nanny, childminder etc.)
• On medicaid/have no insurance (thus impacting which hospitals/clinics etc they go to)
• Whether there's higher education among parents/grandparents
• Access to education outside of high school - is military the only option
• Military recruitment in their local malls/shops/schools - they actively target low income communities - kids start talking to the recruiters at a very young age...
• Are more likely to vote Republican
• Have children young
• Typically are very ill before they access health care (later stages of a disease etc.) due to worry about costs or being unable to get into free clinics!
• Often believe charity/churches should play more of a role in helping people than the government should

Personally

I know two poorer American family through a volunteer project. You'd never ever know it from their blog/facebook/instagram. However, they...

• Live in basement apartments with 3+ kids and if they can will have many more children - there is no state benefit per child there, so no real incentive in that regard. Neither family is on welfare/food stamps.
• Have no insurance/rely on state for any health care (yet vote Republican and don't want universal health care believing they will be like Russia in it's hardest years - lining up for bread, freezing to death...!)
• Husbands work insane hours (6 days week x 12+ hr days, and have side gigs - extra work after Church etc on their day off, helping build things, work Friday nights and Saturday nights etc.)
• Savings are wiped out even with a 'minor' bill like a $500 car repair
• Plans for sons is military after high school. One's son just accepted an entry into the navy (age 18).
• They have big dreams and post a lot of what I'd call aesthetic content - you'd never ever know they live in basement apartments. They have photos of feet at the beach, in linens twirling in the grass etc., books etc. Poverty is very very very hidden. Their accounts are like dreams. They look like the wealthy accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers who do the same. yet clearly very very different.
• Very traditional roles for mothers/fathers. Neither believe women should work ever outside the home. One is 'allowed' do to some pyramid selling of stuff. So even though for one, husbands shift is 5 am to 5 pm and there's several late night shops (food) she could work at say 7-10 a couple nights/week and some women in their community do, they won't because they must be content in all things and her role is at home.
• Their hopes and dreams for their children don't include education. It's faith, same faith partners (even from a young age they are praying for future wives/husbands) and being blessed by God with bounty/wealth/richness
• Children have no hobbies, extra curriculars etc. Not even the kids in high school
• Very limited contact with others. Everything costs money and they are 'content to be at home'
• Children/parents only receive emergency dental care, no braces etc.
• They try as many natural 'healers' before state medicine (herbs, oils etc)
• Don't vaccinate
• Minimal, if any real news - it's very much a lack of awareness life could be better
• They believe one day they will be rich and yet another reason there for not supporting socialist ideals.
• They think Bernie Sanders is the root of all evil [roll eyes - I love the guy]

It's was eye opening to say the least...

Edited to add - housesize is very dependent on state. I know people who were poor in very very small housing en par with the UK and others in different states in bigger housing but still many other indicators of poverty.

There is so much misinformation on this thread, which is par for the course on MN threads about the US. 🤦‍♀️ Some useful and accurate posts too, naturally. But most MNers won't be able to tell the difference.

@masomenos

In reality, these places are seething, roiling hotbeds of gossip, drama, disputes, people trying to wield power.

Blimey! That does sound like Desperate Housewives. I’d struggle 🤣

Most American sitcoms are set in middle class ish America, contrasting with shows like My Name is Earl, Raising Hope and Shameless (US).

if the characters have money, the outside will be perfectly landscaped, the furniture will all match, the appliances will be pristine and shiny.

poverty will be the opposite, unkempt lawns, chipped paint, cluttered homes with mismatched furniture. For some reason that furniture will often be shades of brown.

in real life, convenants really do require that we keep the outside of our homes perfect. It’s to keep up property values. Having lived in a region that didn’t have them as the norm, I absolutely love having a strong HOA. It makes the whole area so much more pleasant and you don’t have to worry about problematic neighbors.

drying outside is absolutely forbidden. I sometimes push it with one or two swim towels out on the deck.

Read some of Barbara Kingsolver's books. She writes about poor Americans, people who buy all their clothes from Thrift stores and do three jobs because none of them pay enough to live on.

Laughing at the frogs 🤣
My walk was fine, just past some shops, offices and industrial units, all paved - seemed madness to get a cab.
The bus was also fine. It was interesting that the other passengers were either students or elderly people, or obviously poor. I was the only person of working age who was not obviously poor. But it was ok, felt perfectly safe.

I once hung out my clothes in Australia. After half an hour my black shirts were dry but grey.

Really?

With attitudes like that, it’s little wonder the carbon footprint of the average American is world beating!

You obviously dont understand Starsky & Hutch. They are plain clothes policemen, that is their police car. That car had absolutely nothing to do with whether they were rich or poor. What do you think plain clothes officers drive in the city?