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Spoken like someone who's never lived in a trailer park. I live in a poor trailer park. My trailer is very well kept up and doesnt look any where near it's true age. It's the home I could afford back in 2002. My yard is neat and both of our cars are in good working condition and not ever on blocks. Our trailer park has over 50 lots with the average lot size of 5,000 sq/ft or larger. Only one trailer has a car on blocks and it's an ongoing restoration project. Unlike some people, we live in the home we can afford instead of putting on airs trying to live above our means. About 5 miles from here is an upscale trailer park. There's a waiting list to get into that park and you must meet their strict standards. Yes, there are trailer parks like what you described in the stereotypical elitest manner. But most of us poor white or black trash living in trailers are working class folks earning an honest living. Some have fallen on hard times due to injury or loss of a better paying job. My income has increased since 2002 but I now have a wife with medical bills. As more and more towns and cities enact zoning laws banning mobile homes, where are the low income families going to live? We can't afford a home that cost over $200,000 like most homes cost today around here. A brand new fully loaded single wide mobile home including brand new appliances cost around $30 to $50,000 depending on size and builder. A good condition used one could be bought for at or less than $10,000 depending on size and condition. Once it's paid off, the average lot rent is around $150 a month. I personally know people who started off with a mobile home while their brick and concrete home was planned and built. They then began renting the mobile home to help pay for the new home.
Trailer trash is a slang term, has nothing to do with a person literally living in a house trailer, a person could live in a 30k square foot mansion and still be trailer trash as the term describes a way of life, attitude, and personality, not where a person lives, just as ghetto used as slang has nothing to do with people living in the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi era.
If it looks new, it's their daddy's car. If it looks old, it's something they got at half price used. Just something you think within the half second that you see them. Don't really think anything more of them after you move onto the next driver.
Interestingly, here on the tony Westside of LA, excluding the 100-millionaire families who live in their castles in Beverly Hills, the vast majority of teens I see don't really drive super-luxury cars ($80k+). Most are either given near-luxury or mid-luxury sedans or Priuses. And i don't know if it's the area's liberal ethos but the stereotypical hand-me-down Volvo wagon is still a staple in high school lots. For example my gf's running/training partner is a hs track star and she drives an Accord but her parents (neurosurgeon & PR exec) have a CL and Maserati Quattro in their garage. Go figure.
When you see a teenager or 20-something driving a luxury or status car, what goes through mind? When I was in high school, it was de rigeur for 16 year-olds to get new luxury cars. It wasn't until I went away to college that I realized how fortunate we were.
Thoughts?
I think they have parents who are willing to give them things. At my high school it was very common for kids to get new luxury cars...and to get even newer luxury cars when they totaled the first luxury car. I don't necessarily think they are rich because status symbols =/= wealth.
As for myself I still use my first car which is about 14 years old. Every since I was young my parents ingrained in me a distrust and distaste of ostentation.
My dad bought me a '96 Buick Park Avenue with 145,000 miles on it and a new set of tires, and had them installed, when I was 18 in 2005. That's my idea of luxury.
I can't recall anybody driving a luxury car like it is defined here (new / newer Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc.) when I was in high school, and I went to one with the best reputation of all public high schools locally. The most expensive cars on the lot were a new Ford Mustang (if I remember correctly, the driver was accused of being a spoiled brat simply because she had that) and probably a new Toyota Matrix. Virtually all cars were over 3-5 years old and cost $5-$10k or under.
Minnesota is reputed to be a place where the ethos forbids "showing off" even if you have the means to. If you've got a lot of money, sure, spend it, but don't flaunt it ostentatiously by buying your kid a new BMW or Mercedes-Benz, or even a fancy new domestic car.
And I think that's a good thing. And honestly...do you really want to spend $50,000 just to let people know you have the cash? That seems to be a poor and even immoral motive for spending that kind of money. I'm not opposed to luxury, but there's between that and extravagance.
Minnesota is reputed to be a place where the ethos forbids "showing off" even if you have the means to. If you've got a lot of money, sure, spend it, but don't flaunt it ostentatiously by buying your kid a new BMW or Mercedes-Benz, or even a fancy new domestic car.
And I think that's a good thing. And honestly...do you really want to spend $50,000 just to let people know you have the cash? That seems to be a poor and even immoral motive for spending that kind of money. I'm not opposed to luxury, but there's between that and extravagance.
Eh, who cares what someone else does with their own money?
They're driving their parent's car, if I notice it at all.
If that was customary at your school then you went to a high school with an inordinate amount of students from very well-to-do families.
I'm thinking Beverly Hills, River Oaks (Houston) and the like.
That's what YOU think. Your comment reminds me of when I was 19 and had an Audi (I bought it, mind you, and it wasn't new). I took it to Walmart (haha) to get a tire patched from a small leak, like a nail hole, and the worker there kept referring to my car as my mom's, even though I told her it was mine.
As for your other comment, yes a lot of wealth (and I just mean middle to upper-middle class) has become highly segregated in this country (which I think has a lot to do with school districts) and it's a major problem and increasingly so, but that's a whole other subject.
I guess it depends on the age of the kids. When I see a teenager in a BMW 6 series I typically think it either belongs to their parents or they're parents have provided them with a nice car. If I see a mid 20 something with a sweet car I eitehr think they're successful or highly indebt. From my observations with friends who drive $40k cars, they're normally succesful adults and come from good families (older money). That doesn't mean they're filthy rich or anything, but these were typically the kids who's parents had a great house in a high end suburb, a lake house, a boat to go with it, and their parents were normally in decent vehicles (lexus, acura, etc), and dad probably had an old muscle car he'd drive on weekends to relive his youth. Seems to be the profile of most young folks I know with "fancy" cars.
I have a friend who is 22 years old who drives a BMW 6 series car paid for by his parents. He is extremely spoiled and can pretty much get anything he wants from his parents whenever he wants it, and it has been like that his whole life. He has a degree from one of the top universities in the country but he doesn't use it. He lives at home and acts completely like a child, runs around naked, even plays with toys and stuff. My friend is an extreme example but comparable stuff, maybe to a lesser degree, is quite common among spoiled Generation Y kids, now twentysomethings but still kids.
School kids driving NEW luxury cars? Never seen it around by me. You will, however, see a few kids with like 90s-early 00's Audis around here. They think they're cool, then they eventually realize the costs of repairs on old German cars lol, and pass it on to be the next young kid's misfortune.
It's the whole "new car when you turn 16" thing that irks me the most, personally. I guess it's just the way I was raised. When you are 16, you should either get a hand-me-down car, get a cheap used car from parents, or heck, get a job and buy your own.
All the school kids that get free shiny new cars from their parents I feel are missing out on a major life experience, lol, it's like skipping puberty or something.
I didn't have a car till I went off to college( my 10th-12th grade years were full off mooching off of friend's rides/riding the bus) then my mom gave me her old mini-van lol (wooohooo! Stud on Campus! =/ ) when she bought a new car finally.
Now, at age 20, I finally bought my first true car, with my own money. Feels good, Imma baby that thing lol.
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