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Would a family like Al & Peggy Bundy's be average working class in your area, or closer to social outcasts?
In what kind of conditions would they be living?
Income: one, slightly above minimum wage (salesman in a regular shoe store)
Children: 2, living at home
Savings: little to none
Debts: unknown, but let's assume here that they don't have any, except a mortgage
PS: by area, I mean a metropolitan area or a part of a state. E.g.: Chicago area, East Tennessee, etc.
I don't really know how to answer that (I guess I would say any urban area in the midwest - Toledo, Green Bay, etc.), but you bring up something I always wondered about when I watched that show. I always thought their house was fairly decent and they lived next door to a successful banker. Yet he is a shoe salesman in the mall.
I get that he was always broke, but in reality they would not have even been homeowners.
A shoe salesman and a stay-at-home shopper? Unless he is a tremendous salesman, they would be homeless. If he can really sell shoes like a dynamo on commission, they might get an old mobile home.
Or rather: where would they live? In Section 8 housing.
.......but in reality they would not have even been homeowners.
Maybe they inherited the house?
On TV shows, the characters always live in much nicer housing than they should be able to afford. I think that contributes to society's discontent when real people with the same sort of jobs can not afford that lifestyle and think they are being cheated out of their entitled lifestyle. After all, it is all over the telly, so why are they shut out?
Not too far off topic: when I was very young, the neighbors behind us had a stay-at-home mom, five kids, and the husband was a Fuller Brush salesman. They had a decent house, the kids had clothes, and they ate regular meals. Even owned a car. So maybe a shoe salesman could afford a house at one time , in some areas of the country.
Not too far off topic: when I was very young, the neighbors behind us had a stay-at-home mom, five kids, and the husband was a Fuller Brush salesman. They had a decent house, the kids had clothes, and they ate regular meals. Even owned a car. So maybe a shoe salesman could afford a house at one time , in some areas of the country.
Interesting. That's what I was wondering, too. The show started in 1987, maybe things were different back then.
Would a family like Al & Peggy Bundy's be average working class in your area, or closer to social outcasts?
In what kind of conditions would they be living..
Cool thread.. growing up, I was a fan of the Bundys. But I did think the series made a (meaningless) mistake in the Bundys' neighborhood placement. The house they lived in was a large 2 story with basement & garage (probably too expensive for a minimum wage, single earner household). And they had well-off yuppie neighbors (Steve & Marcy turned Marcy & Jefferson). Yuppie neighbors bragging about their German cars implies an upper middle class area..
One minimum wage earner trying to feed four people is gonna be struggling a lot more than how Al was depicted..
Al did grow up somewhere close by, probably same socioeconomic class tho, bcuz he and his kids all went to Polk High..
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There are several places where they would fit in about 30 miles from Seattle, such as a trailer park in Marysville or Everett, where you can still buy a doublewide for just $130-200k.
Would a family like Al & Peggy Bundy's be average working class in your area, or closer to social outcasts?
In what kind of conditions would they be living?
Income: one, slightly above minimum wage (salesman in a regular shoe store)
Children: 2, living at home
Savings: little to none
Debts: unknown, but let's assume here that they don't have any, except a mortgage
PS: by area, I mean a metropolitan area or a part of a state. E.g.: Chicago area, East Tennessee, etc.
I'd say such people are the majority in Caribou ME to Blaine WA. Then south to San Ysidro CA, and east to Key West FL.
Many or most Americans live in a TV and social media-addled haze, talking past one another and raising brats. Working unfulfilling and crushing jobs that don't pay well. With significant credit card debt, and wives with entitlement issues. They don't have much, don't go anywhere, don't do anything, all hate each other, and the couple often as not retires 'broke'.
Not how I choose to go through life, but so many do.
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