I started the In the US series and only managed to get one chapter in, because any way you look at it, you could write a book on following and understanding the "culture" of a country. So, for this chapter, I think I'll take a few aspects of US Culture, and try to spell them out for you the best way I can. If you want me to do more chapters with other aspects like this one, let me know!

The first thing to note before I start is that the US is fairly large. We range from the rather cold north to the hot and tropical south. Southerners have a different culture than northerners, and west coasters have a different culture than east coasters. We have access to different restaurants, different population demographics, different environments, from deserts to swaps to plains to forests.

Thus, this chapter will speak in broad generalities, often pulling from stereotypes. I'll try to keep things balanced and fair, but there is no way I can account for the diversity in America. You will probably say... that's not my experience, where I live we do things this way! That's perfectly fine. In fact, I encourage you to go to the comments and leave that, as many PoV as possible will only help other people broaden their horizons. Anyway, let's start at the top.

The US typically breaks ourselves down into three classes, the poor, the middle-class, and the rich. However, you can also discuss the upper middle-class, the lower middle-class, and then, of course, the 1%.

In America, 1% of the population possesses about 90% of the money, or so they say. I of course am talking about billionaires. These are the CEOs, the tycoons, and the businessmen. These do NOT include actors and sports players. Although we pay actors and sports players millions at a time, they're still only consider rich (the top 10%), and are not part of the 1%.

The rich, and most certainly the 1%, have their own social club that isn't a part of the middle-class. I have very little experience with being rich, regrettably, and I have a lot more experience with being middle-class, lower middle-class, and poor. However, there is a constant belief among those groups that the rich are out of touch with reality.

You see, they have so much money that they can hire other people to do things a normal person would have to do. A poor or middle-class might have to spend time cleaning your house, watching your kids, teaching your kids, taking them to school, managing your time, ect... The rich think that they "work hard" and thus deserve their fortune. What they don't realize is they have the time to "work hard" because anything they don't have time for, they can pay for the convenience of not having to do it.

It affects the middle-class too. Most middle-class homes would have a washer and a dryer to do clothing. To the average American, that's considered a given. How much time would a middle-class person lose having to take their clothing to a laundry mat and having to wait two hours to do all the laundry every weekend? Do you think a rich person would ever do this?

So these conveniences compound quite a bit the richer you get. Depending on how rich they are, certain Middle-class families will afford certain things the rich have, based on a per need basis. When I grew up, my parents hired a cleaning service to come up and clean the house once a month. If we suffered in school, mom would hire us a tutor. However, we certainly never had something even remotely close to a nanny or live-in maid or anything like that.

This experience differs greatly. The idea of butlers, maids, and Au Pairs are not very common in the United States. The Brady Bunch depiction of a live in maid is virtually unheard of. In fact, as much as it pains me to say this, two and a half men has it closer. You might have a maid you hire, and she'd have a key and come out to your place at certain intervals to clean, but she certainly wouldn't live there. The rich may hire personal assistants that manage their schedules and phone calls, but these would also rarely be live-in. More likely, there would be an agreed upon time they'd be on hand, and then they'd go home after the time was reached.

Most people are paid either by salary or by hourly wages. Hourly wages are usually associated with poorer jobs and technical jobs, otherwise known as blue collar jobs. Meanwhile, Salary is more associated with white collar jobs, such as working as a manager, as an information technologies tech, or an "office job". An hourly job is a job where every hour you're clocked in, you make X dollars an hour. In a salary, you make a base pay, often given in monthly increments, and while you technically only work 40-50 hours a week, your pay doesn't change if you make more. In bad cases, your pay does get docked if you don't meet the 40-50 hours agreed upon. Although this sounds crappy by any standard and maybe a bit like extortion, Salary jobs are typically more stable, with clearly laid out expectations and benefits that are often not afforded to an hourly worker.

A blue collar job doesn't necessarily mean you won't make a lot. Plumbers, for example, make a lot of money in America even though their job is considered blue collar. They make salaries close to that from doctors, and teachers make salaries somewhere around nurses. If you work in a big city, you likely make more money. If you work in a small town or county, you make less. A lot of people will work in a big city, but live in the county to save money. They are called commuters, and typically drive upwards of an hour and thirty minutes to work in the city where they can have a higher wage, while affording the luxuries (larger home) of a small town.

Suburbs (sub-urban) refers to the area just on the outskirts of the city. They're typically an area to buy housing while being in close proximity to the urban city center, however, as cities grow, suburbs tend to become more run down and less nice, so it sort of becomes a situation where people have to live ever farther away from where they work in order to afford a home. (more of this in How to get Around)

Anyway, the point is that people range from poor to rich, and we live in a culture where we like to think we can move from poor to rich. Americans collect success stories like catnip, hoping that we'll be the next author to write a best-selling fiction, the next actor to make it big, the next singer whose songs go viral, the next you-tuber to become popularized. In a lot of ways, fame (or rather the money that comes with fame) is the American dream. Even though the chances of people leaving their socioeconomic group are low, many in the US cling to the hope that one day they will make it big.

In the meantime, debt accumulation is a big part of the American lifestyle. If you want a car, you will most likely get a car loan, which usually takes six years to pay. If you get a house, you get a mortgage, which takes 30 years to pay off. If you get an education past high school, you need to get loans and grants to pay for the cost. If you want stuff, usually you'll end up with credit cards, and likely those credit cards will become charged up and difficult to pay off.

Naturally, this all comes down to whether you're living beyond your means, but if you're in the lower-middle class or poor, you likely don't have a choice. Taxes get done once a year. For a rich person, it usually means they lose money and have to pay back taxes. If you're poor, it usually is a payday, giving you an extra check that allows you to pay off your bills and finally get something nice you've been wanting all year.

I really could go on, but let's move on to the next subject...

If you're poor, you probably don't own a home. If you do, it's probably in a very bad neighborhood. Most poor people rent. You can rent an apartment, or you can rent a home. There are pretty big differences on from whether you live in a city or a rural area. In the rural areas, you will probably live in a house. If you rent, you probably live in an apartment complex, house, or condominium. Older people will usually sell their homes and move to condominiums.

In rural areas, towns, and small cities, houses are your standard fair. They usually come in 1-2 stories, 3 bedroom, a family room, kitchen, dining room, and 1.5 baths. That would be the standard lower-middle class home. More money (or poorer location, or older home) usually means more bedrooms, the addition of a living room, more bathrooms, dinette rooms, receiving rooms, ect... ect...

Most homes have an attic, which can range from a room you can actually live in, to a storage space, to a fiberglass filled crawl space you wouldn't even trust your more useless crap in. Some homes have basements, I'd say most homes don't have a finished basement. They'd usually see concrete walls and floors which hold your furnace, your electric box, your water line, and possibly a sub-pump.

In rural areas, an apartment would often be in a house-like structure which can be 1-2 stories with a different person living on each story. They have parking lots in front, and sometimes have garages, but also sometimes charge extra for garages. Access can sometimes be inside, where a small hallway allows you to connect to your apartment. Access can also be outside, where you door leads immediately into your house with no communal hallway.

Condominiums are like apartments, but you own your individual space and pay a monthly condo-fee that covers all the extraneous expenses. If you rent a condo, you're not renting from the owner of a building, but the owner of that particular unit. In the city, apartments are usually part of large buildings. These buildings can go 10-20 stories high, and the room is often cut down quite a bit size-wise. Parking is also a lot more restricted, often forcing you onto the street or a very specific and restrictive spot.

Most American's own a TV, and these days most TVs are flatscreen. Most family rooms (den) consist of a couch and a loveseat or recliner chair centered around a television. Naturally, the TV is the centerfold of the room. Many families these days do not eat in the dining room, instead bringing their food into the family room and eating around the television (although they may be using their tablets/laptops these days instead of watching TV). They might use TV trays, or they might just put the food on their arm rests. Dining rooms are often used only for holidays, birthdays, and when guests come. This isn't every American, mind you, but I'd say there is a large majority of families that do not eat their meals together at a table.

The master bedroom often has their own bathroom and often a walk-in closet, but that depends on the size of the home/apartment. The other bedrooms usually have a more condensed closet. A single adult usually sleeps on a full or a queen sized bed. A couple will sleep in a queen or king sized bed. Newborns sleep in cradles, babies and toddlers sleep in cribs, which eventually get converted into toddler beds when they get big enough that they might start climbing out of their crib. Eventually, kids, will usually end up in a single or twin size bed until they are teenagers, then it depends on their personal desires/family wealth on whether they get a full/ queen sized bed, the size of the room having some factor there.

The bedroom usually consists of a desk, two dressers (one tall, one long), and maybe a bookcase. Obviously subject to change, but that is entirely up to the individual. Most of the time, furniture is made of wood. Tables and TV stands are sometimes made from metal and/or glass, but most parents wouldn't own glass stuff unless they had it before they had kids and didn't have the money/foresight to replace it. A master bedroom and or teenager's room may have their own TV. It is almost certainly smaller than the family rooms TV. The presence of a TV depends on the family.

If a family still has a desktop computer, it is often kept in the living room, a guest bedroom, an activity room, and in some cases the family room or bedroom. A family room is usually where the family resides, while a living room is usually more for guests, celebrations, and side stuff. Basically, the family room is traditionally busier and less clean than the living room, so the living room is reserved for any period in which you need a cleaner, more cleared room to work with. This also might be where the Christmas tree is set up in December if the family room doesn't have room.

Kitchens typically contain counter space and a two basin sink with one side having a garbage disposal and the other side having a filter that keeps big stuff from going down into the plumbing. There will be a refrigerator with a freezer attached (either side by side or freezer on top), a microwave that is either sitting on one of the counters, a special microwave stand that flows into the dining room, or as a special attachment that goes above the oven. Kitchens will also have an oven, either gas or electric, with a stove on top. Above the stove is an air filtration system to remove smoke during cooking. It's standard to have smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every floor, so if your cooking generates smoke, you might end up turning on the alarm.

You might have a dishwasher. It really depends on when the location was built, how it was built, ect... ect... Usually, if the people who built the kitchen didn't put in room for a dishwasher that is built in, then someone probably doesn't have a dishwasher and does dishes by hand at the sink. Plates and dried food items are kept in the cabinetry. Forks, knives, spoons, and other kitchen utensils are often kept in drawers, although some utensils are kept in special containers or wood blocks. Other appliances usual for a kitchen is a mixer, which can be a stand-alone like a kitchen-aide or a handheld device, a coffee brewer, a blender, and a toaster.

I think that's about the standard, but there are always exceptions to everything I say here.

Most American own two cars. This doesn't hold true in certain areas, particularly around urban centers. However, most of America is spread out, and earning a driver's license is basically a rite of passage for every kid turning 16. Each parent owns a car, so in a household with only one parent, you might have only one car.

Cars are used to get just about anywhere. In most of the US, the infrastructure just isn't there to travel without a vehicle. There is a bus system in most small cities, and particularly in towns centered around a university, there might exist a decent bus system, but this does not apply to most people. In New York, you have access to the underground metro, and while trains exist, they're rarely used for pedestrian transport except in a few specific circumstances.

Some poor might become dependent on the bus system, but it's incredibly inconvenient and questionably reliable. Taxis are used when you're in a pinch, but unlike the Hollywood depiction of "flagging down a taxi", in most of America, you'd call the company and they'd send someone to pick you up. In certain locations, particularly around busy airports, taxis will be sitting waiting for people to flag them for a ride to their hotel, but that's about as far as it gets.

The poor will typically own a used car. Middle-class will often take out six year loans. As soon as they pay off one car, the next car will have broken down to the extent that they need to replace it, leaving a cycle of always owing on at least one car. The rich, obviously, buy whatever they feel like.

Motorcycles exist and require a motorcycle license. A motorcycle usually isn't owned "instead of" a car. There are some pretty big differences between whether you live in the north or the south. If you live in the northern states, you're used to snow. Snow comes, sticks, and accumulates throughout the year. People who own motorcycles (or pools for that matter) are less frequent the more north you go, simply because of the more limited amount of time in which you can use it. A snow day where schools/work is cancelled usually requires quite a lot of snow.

Go south to about midway through the country, and snow frequently melts and never accumulates into 10 foot high mountains like it does in Wisconsin and Minnesota. You might have snow for like a week, and then it will melt. Go farther south than that, and even the smallest smattering of snow freaks them the heck out, and the entire city shuts down because of a dusting of snow. Bicycles are rarely used to get anywhere by anyone. Bike trails are usually there for bike enthusiasts, and not effective for going shopping or getting to work.

The main take away is that the US is really stretched out and the infrastructure of the US discourages walking in all but the busiest urban centers and university towns. (Few sidewalks, very busy streets, stores spread out and hard to reach with massive parking lots). Although people get an impression Americans are fat and lazy, and lot of this is part of this infrastructure build around driving. I recall spending a week in Poland, and being shocked at how easy it was to get by without a car. Doing that where I currently live? Just walking to a grocery store would take crossing three major roads, and interstate highway, and walking at least a mile without a sidewalk, and I live right behind a major mall, but the way they've built it, there is no way I can actually walk directly to it by foot, I'd have to walk two miles out of the way following the roads without a sidewalk.

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If you liked this chapter, and want to see more, let me know. It kind of feels like an infodump of just whatever pops into my head here, so I don't know if it's helping or just stating the obvious, but if you like them, I have a lot I could say about a lot of different issues, so let me know what you want to know about. I had a lot more I could say on these subjects, but this was about as far as much endurance could manage. If it's useful, let me know... if you think it's a waste and doesn't say anything you didn't already know, well, let me know that as well.