Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

In The US - Classes, Homes, and Cars

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...

Whats In Your House

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...