How can you tell if Americans are "poor"?

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Like most of us I watch quite a bit of US drama and box sets but remain baffled about the characters based on things like the house they live in etc...

Can American audiences tell that someone is poor or rich (or in between) based on things such as house size, style of house and other things that are part of TV series?

I know (well think I do so not assuming - please correct if wrong!) that middle and working class may mean different things to UK - but can US viewers pick up more based on cultural norms and things that may need explaining to non-American audiences?

An example is I watched some episodes of True Detective and thought the house was lovely and spacious but everything else in the plot pointed to the fact that this was a "poor rundown neighbourhood with substance issues etc..."

Are there any rules of thumb? Do American audiences get confused my things like this when watching UK or European dramas?

Incorrect regional dialects in TV and movies drive me insane! They need to hire better dialect coaches in Hollywood. I recently rewatched the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird for the millionth time. It was such a pleasure to hear the authentic accents of the main child actors. Gregory Peck, on the other hand, sounds exactly like what he was: a Californian trying to impersonate an Alabaman. 😅 He's such a good actor that I can forgive him. But with lesser actors, it can be incredibly annoying.

Teeth, I get. Anyone can pay gazillions (provided they have it) and get amazing teeth.

But what do wealthier/ middle class American ladies do if they've got thinning, rubbish hair?

Every wealthy looking person seems to have thick, glossy rich-person hair. HOW?

Oh, and speaking of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the subject of this thread, when Scout asks Atticus if they are poor, he says, "We are indeed." It was the Depression, of course, when many people were struggling financially. But nothing about their life indicates genuine poverty. Atticus is a lawyer, he employs a full-time housekeeper/nanny, they want for nothing. He does say they are "not exactly" as poor as the Cunninghams (and they are nowhere near as poor as the Ewells, not to mention the Black residents of the town), but it's an interesting take on how poverty was perceived in an earlier era.

If nature hasn't provided, they likely have extensions, hair pieces, or even full wigs. All human hair, often bespoke, and very expensive.

There really isn't much alternative to some kind of wig if you're losing your hair. None of the purported remedies work very well. The cost varies hugely depending on what you get. (Orthodox Jewish women often wear wigs so I have some familiarity with the topic.) A really good, hand tied, virgin hair wig can be $10,000. Black women also often wear wigs, though they don't always favour such expensive ones. (I did read a New York Times piece about the wigmaker who does Naomi Campbell's, though!) If your hair isn't that bad, a good stylist can do wonders, though.

Because there's so many types of holidays you can have without going abroad, even many middle class people won't bother getting a passport unless they have a trip planned. I daresay if Europe weren't so close, and people didn't want mountains or the beach, a lot of British people wouldn't have passports either. For Americans, travel overseas is a big deal, and it does get expensive nowadays. It's not even the vacation time, because if you can afford to go to Europe in the first place you're going to be in a position to have it. If you're close enough to either border to drive, then it's another matter. There's loads of car traffic across both borders.

Americans and Canadians are, in general, willing to drive surprisingly long distances rather than fly. It's cultural as well as financial and logistical.

The median salary of a police detective or policeman in the US is $74,910/yr.
The pension they get is top-notch, and they only need 20 years (usually) to retire. If the detective in that series is living in a run-down area, then she is spending money other places because she would be well over the average.

I have never met a policeman or detective who was living in a run-down area or close to a bread-line existence, unless it was by choice or city charter (where city employees have to live in the city/town they serve). Even then, they live in the better areas.

Or, like me, live with it the best way possible!

My God, the misconceptions are getting weird. 😆🙄

Indeed! The good hair is more likely down to things like:

• regular salon visits for professional cut and color (vs botched box dye and an annual haircut at a beauty school)
• better diet which means hair looks healthier, shinier, etc
• better quality washing and styling products at home to keep hair looking its best
• more free time to spend on grooming
• lower average life stress levels, so less likely to experience stress-related hair loss

A football coach is a secondary school teacher surely so middle class even if not so much money. The mother was a housewife and then church secretary.

We have food deserts too, but not as bad I agree.

The two Fraisier sons definitely considered themselves a different class to their father even if all three would be within the middle class. Would they not be lower and upper middle class? I mentioned before the argument over the chair, that was obviously about class.

Is that how you tell someone is poor in America or a comment on this thread?!

Too

They are often more expensive as they have a bigger footprint and also go for a premium with more affluent retirees. There are some 2 bed ones being built near me - £500k when you can get a 4 bed detached for less.

Yes, but that's a really extreme example, having to kill wild animals for food, etc.

Interesting. Is that a city thing maybe as they take up more land? I suppose some of the old people's bungalows I'm thinking of are/were council houses.

By contrast, a Dsis lived for many years in Cambridge (home of Harvard) Massachussetts, where until fairly recently house prices weren’t wildly different from the more expensive areas of the U.K. Only a very few years ago she sold her house - very far from the typical TV-American huge - very small garden, for IIRC $1.3m - and it sold in one weekend, with more than one over-asking price offer.

A lot of them also have second jobs as well (usually security related). Same with Firerfighters, but I guess more firefighters own a side business. It depends on the shift they run, but it’s very common.

Don’t think so, we are in Lancashire, ribble valley. I know what you mean about the council ones though I had an auntie in one, it was minute.

just googled rightmove and there’s a 3 bed bungalow near me £625k sold very quickly.

It's not allowed in some gated communities.

Extensions and weaves

Even years ago my FiL was told he wasn’t allowed to hang washing out - on a small estate with its own tennis court and indoor pool - U.K. near Chichester. The houses were nothing special, his was a fairly small 3 bed, IIRC semi or terraced. He was also told by some particularly officious neighbour that he was required to hang net curtains in his front windows!

Pleased to say he ignored both edicts.

We're in an affluent area in the west of Scotland and many bungalows here which maybe started life as a 2 bed home have now been extended both out and up the way to make them into 4/5 bed 2 baths, they sell for 550-600k. Majority of them are bought by younger families due to the sought-after schooling here

Most Americans don't live in gate communities. My parents always hung out laundry, albeit fairly discreetly.

However where I grew up winter went from end September to May, then pollen season which could turn surfaces yellow, then humid summers with cold nights! Not ideal for drying outside. I remember wanting to wear a favorite cardigan once but it had literally frozen on the line

Or genetics. I kept the thin baby fine hair that I had as a small child. It never got thicker or fuller. Ditto my Mom and my sister.

Yes, it is very common and that income is on top of the above salaries.