I noticed pretty quick how this type of shit doesn't scan, even as a kid. Everyone I've ever known basically lives in apartments, is in permanent debt on a shitty car, has no savings & not a lot of if any vacation time, and usually has to scrounge money to get a pet spayed or whatever. The American media portrayal has always been so out-of-touch that it was bizarre to me.

Coincidentally my ex was a military brat and she actually DID live in the spacious house with the SUV for each adult and tons of vacation time/eating out. It was like peeking into a fantasy land, weird. Coincidentally she was insufferable

[–] redsteel@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 11 months ago

I grew up with two kids (among others) who had similar material circumstances. Each lived and raised in a full-size, four-bedroom house in excellent repair, both parents earned well above poverty level incomes. One car per parent replaced with a new one about every 5 years, and a hand-me-down given to each of the kids when they got their driving licenses.

They had privacy, peace and quiet, never wanted for food, enjoyed weekly dining out with the entire family, had regular gatherings with more distant family (who also enjoyed similar material conditions), multiple yearly vacations, virtually anything else that related to comfort and ease of mind. Both of these kids grew up into borderline sociopaths with self-admitted libertarian ideologies.