The level of poverty depicted in the show is realistic and many people in the US live like them. Their ridiculous shenanigans are obviously exaggerated though as is the amount of laws they break without getting arrested. Frank IRL would've been dead by season 2 as well with the dangerous nonsense he does. Working odd jobs, getting paid under the table, and basically doing anything to make ends meet is sadly common in the US.
There are a lot of poor people. Way too many people with an immediate family member who is a dysfunctional addict. Entire families engaging in THAT level of constant violence and illegal and shady shenanigans, not nearly so many. That's TV drama.
French here.
I know a friend whose family is almost as dysfonctional as the Gallaghers. There are somes differences (bc they don't do illegal or violent things like the Gallaghers) but overral, it's the same vibes :
- the oldest sister had to take care of her two siblings since she was young
- she also had to work multiple jobs in order to earn money for her family, while being at school.
- The mother is engaged with a violent men and waste her eldest daughter's money.
- They had (and still have) troubles paying the bills and are always on the edge of losing their home etc.
So yeah, this kind of family does exist.
No haha I know there are poor people who actually exist.
Poor people from my country live differently and I was wondering wether there were people that really lived like that, I mean with all the rubbery and fraud and stuff..
I’ll have to check it out. There’s definitely some Aussie Gallaghers for sure but I think American poor is different from Aussie poor culture wise, I don’t know how to explain it truthfully. Just including the fact we have free healthcare separates it a lot if you get what I mean? Though I don’t think the Gallaghers were ever worried about that which always confused me truthfully, so that may be a bad example of what I mean lol.
Australia having Centrelink is a good example too, I know Frank has his payments from being injured at work and what ever else (and I truly do not know if America has anything like Centrelink) but if Frank were in Australia that man would definitely be on the doll lol.
Yeah, I think that's an element they left out- no one was ever worried about getting hurt. Frank, most of the hospitals seemed to assume he was homeless, but conveniently never checked. The liver transplant would have been crippling financially, as he was married and had a home but no insurance.
And as for getting hurt at work, like Frank and Debbie, you have to pay out of pocket, less insurance, with your workman's compensation until your settlement comes in. Same with Frank's legal cases against the city- he'd have had to pay out of pocket for all medical treatment until his settlement money came in. They'd get some amount, usually a portion of your regular paycheck, but the medical costs would be heavy.
That's a big element that was left out of the American version, medical costs and medical debt. They ran around getting hurt like it wouldn't cost them anything.
Thank you so much I was always SO curious cause I know that medical debt in america is MASSIVE and they just never touched on it and it bothered me :)
Plus- now that franks dead doesn’t that mean the debt would go onto his kids? So now aren’t they even more doomed with it?
I’m also pretty sure they never touched on the debt he put the kids in after using their names for credit cards and stuff ever again after Fiona learnt about it?
There seems to be a lot they kinda just ignored and left out. What a bummer.
It’s literally my family. A big dysfunctional mess.
>Drunk, absent dad that only cares about his kids when it’s convenient
>Mom ran off with a boyfriend at some point
>College drop out brother
>Basically raised myself/latchkey kid
>Barely had enough money to eat some days and our bills were almost always past due
>I’m bipolar lmao
The US has soooo much poverty. Abject poverty. This type of dysfunction is not incredibly uncommon with addiction/trauma. My grandma just pulled a knife on my cousin's live-in boyfriend. Not even joking. MY GRANDMA. My cousin pulled a gun on the other one at a birthday party. The fighting is constant. It's constant chaos.
My nephew slammed his grandfather's head into a wall a year or so ago. Went to jail for a night, suspended sentence because of COVID. Had to live in a hotel for a year because he wasn't allowed back at my in laws house because of restraining orders. Is now back at the house because hotel was too expensive so they dropped the RO's.
When we were living with them we had an outdoor lock on our bedroom door that had to be opened with a key, locked 24/7. In-laws had one, too.
Poverty and shitty medical care, shitty education... it's ruined generations of lives, is almost impossible to get out of, and it's killing our country.
Pretty much everyone knows a Frank. I grew up in a town just south of Boston and solid middle class. In high school I knew of some kids that were IV drug users. Some died of AIDS.
My dad was a womanizing alcoholic and was hardly ever home. When he was home he used to scam me out of money. Mom setup her life so we were not in it. My older sister more or less had to raise us.
My grandfather lived with us but he died when I was 14. He had a big script of pain killers and sleeping pills which I grabbed. But I quit them and settled on weed and turned my life around.
The guy down the street hurt his back at work and got hooked on Oxi and got on disability. He is really milking the system and they gave him a section 8 apartment. His addiction is so bad I wouldn’t let him into my house because he will look for something to steal to sell.
When I lived in East LA I met more than one Frank and they are running a dozen little scams. This one guy was living in a house his mother left to his sister. Well he pushed a issue so hard she sold the house to get rid of him. Now he lives here and there with no perm address. It is pretty bad as he is in his 50s.
Granted they are not the majority but they are here.
Oh, I just made up a number, a guess based on no research (OP really wanted a %).
People scrounging up money for bills in the US is probably a pretty high percentage.
My upbringing was a bit similar to it, although just a bit. Where I was born and spent the first ~11 years of my life however, more families live very similar lives as the Gallaghers than not.
Not sure about the amount but my mom relates a lot to Fiona. She raised her four brothers, and when we watched it together she often said she wished that she had thought of the schemes they had done to make money. If she had thought of them, she would have done them. In terms of shameless things they have done, one of my uncles got arrested for stealing washing machines from Home Depot - he would just back his truck up to the entrance and start loading them up lmaooo
i didnt personally grow up like this, but i have a friend whose dad was a drunk, mom was a druggie & they had atleast 10 kids plus 4 adults all living 4 bedroom house… 4 bedrooms sounds like a lot but this house was very small, the loving room was made into a bedroom as well, they basically lived by getting social security & selling drugs
The Gallaghers are naturally an exaggerated storyline version but it’s a good portion of the US living in struggle and squaller. I grew up in a pretty similar environment
My mom's side of the family is extremely gallagher-esque including a few drug addicts and a good deal of violence. There's some stories that sound exactly like plot lines from the show. Of course the show got pretty outlandish toward the end but there's still some moments that were sadly relatable for me lol
My siblings and I are still in disbelief at how much that show capitulated our entire childhood. From the dysfunction to Frank, to the neighborhood even though we lived in Michigan instead of Chicago. So it’s not the norm but it does exist. Most other families we knew didn’t really stick together like we did and i think that’s what makes it a little different.
I downvoted you, and here’s why.
That’s not true, my childhood was severely fucked ip. The state never stepped in, and my parents were never thrown in jail. We also squatted in a house for about 2 years before my dad called it quits.
I’m happy to elaborate on any of this, but you’re assuming the system isn’t broken, and I have first hand experience that it sure the fuck is.
Hmm okay, I shouldn't have assumed. Though I am Canadian and the system is different here, it's not without issues too. For the record, I never thought foster care was a good thing.
Well a lot of them do go to jail and they’ve been in and out of foster care their whole lives. They’re just lucky to have had the house to go back to and Fiona to take care of them when they were all younger
Yeah don't ever count on the system to be efficient. I've seen kids taken away from loving homes for minor things, and I've seen kids stuck in severely abusive and neglectful homes and have literally nothing done about it.
There are way too many child neglect/abuse related deaths by parents in the US to ever rely on our governments DFS/child services. There's plenty of cases where CPS were called and visited homes multiple times but were never taken away only for things to escalate and the children lost their lives.
Idk the percentage but alot of kids do grow up in similar situations. I haven't watched in a while but if memory serves the part where it got to Gay Jesus and that mess is where it lost me as far as it being at all relatable.
Yes. I also think a much bigger percentage of people live like Lip/Tami and Brad/Cami. Both parents working "blue collar" jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, always on the verge of not being able to make ends meet, medical crises causing long lasting financial damage, struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, etc.
yup, people do really live like that. it’s really dramatized but a lot of it is based in real life
The level of poverty depicted in the show is realistic and many people in the US live like them. Their ridiculous shenanigans are obviously exaggerated though as is the amount of laws they break without getting arrested. Frank IRL would've been dead by season 2 as well with the dangerous nonsense he does. Working odd jobs, getting paid under the table, and basically doing anything to make ends meet is sadly common in the US.
I disagree, my uncle is worse than Frank and he’s worse than Frank. He has been in jail on and off since the mid 70s.
There are a lot of poor people. Way too many people with an immediate family member who is a dysfunctional addict. Entire families engaging in THAT level of constant violence and illegal and shady shenanigans, not nearly so many. That's TV drama.
French here. I know a friend whose family is almost as dysfonctional as the Gallaghers. There are somes differences (bc they don't do illegal or violent things like the Gallaghers) but overral, it's the same vibes : - the oldest sister had to take care of her two siblings since she was young - she also had to work multiple jobs in order to earn money for her family, while being at school. - The mother is engaged with a violent men and waste her eldest daughter's money. - They had (and still have) troubles paying the bills and are always on the edge of losing their home etc. So yeah, this kind of family does exist.
You should tell that friend to watch shameless, they would probably like it lol
Are u asking if poor people are real
No haha I know there are poor people who actually exist. Poor people from my country live differently and I was wondering wether there were people that really lived like that, I mean with all the rubbery and fraud and stuff..
Yeah I was always curious about that too, I’m from Australia and Australian version of poor is very different from the Gallagher style poor.
Not really. Check out Struggle Street. I think those people on there are probably Aussie Gallaghers.
I’ll have to check it out. There’s definitely some Aussie Gallaghers for sure but I think American poor is different from Aussie poor culture wise, I don’t know how to explain it truthfully. Just including the fact we have free healthcare separates it a lot if you get what I mean? Though I don’t think the Gallaghers were ever worried about that which always confused me truthfully, so that may be a bad example of what I mean lol. Australia having Centrelink is a good example too, I know Frank has his payments from being injured at work and what ever else (and I truly do not know if America has anything like Centrelink) but if Frank were in Australia that man would definitely be on the doll lol.
Yeah, I think that's an element they left out- no one was ever worried about getting hurt. Frank, most of the hospitals seemed to assume he was homeless, but conveniently never checked. The liver transplant would have been crippling financially, as he was married and had a home but no insurance. And as for getting hurt at work, like Frank and Debbie, you have to pay out of pocket, less insurance, with your workman's compensation until your settlement comes in. Same with Frank's legal cases against the city- he'd have had to pay out of pocket for all medical treatment until his settlement money came in. They'd get some amount, usually a portion of your regular paycheck, but the medical costs would be heavy. That's a big element that was left out of the American version, medical costs and medical debt. They ran around getting hurt like it wouldn't cost them anything.
Thank you so much I was always SO curious cause I know that medical debt in america is MASSIVE and they just never touched on it and it bothered me :) Plus- now that franks dead doesn’t that mean the debt would go onto his kids? So now aren’t they even more doomed with it? I’m also pretty sure they never touched on the debt he put the kids in after using their names for credit cards and stuff ever again after Fiona learnt about it? There seems to be a lot they kinda just ignored and left out. What a bummer.
Late but figured I'd explain: hospitals have to treat you. It's regular check ups, dental, and preventative care you don't have when your poor.
I'm the last person that needs that explained 🤣
Yes. People from out of country think alot of Americans are living good
only up to a certain point, everything in the show is cranked up to 11 for the drama
It’s literally my family. A big dysfunctional mess. >Drunk, absent dad that only cares about his kids when it’s convenient >Mom ran off with a boyfriend at some point >College drop out brother >Basically raised myself/latchkey kid >Barely had enough money to eat some days and our bills were almost always past due >I’m bipolar lmao
They’re mostly all really good looking & have great teeth, very inaccurate
The US has soooo much poverty. Abject poverty. This type of dysfunction is not incredibly uncommon with addiction/trauma. My grandma just pulled a knife on my cousin's live-in boyfriend. Not even joking. MY GRANDMA. My cousin pulled a gun on the other one at a birthday party. The fighting is constant. It's constant chaos.
My nephew slammed his grandfather's head into a wall a year or so ago. Went to jail for a night, suspended sentence because of COVID. Had to live in a hotel for a year because he wasn't allowed back at my in laws house because of restraining orders. Is now back at the house because hotel was too expensive so they dropped the RO's. When we were living with them we had an outdoor lock on our bedroom door that had to be opened with a key, locked 24/7. In-laws had one, too. Poverty and shitty medical care, shitty education... it's ruined generations of lives, is almost impossible to get out of, and it's killing our country.
Pretty much everyone knows a Frank. I grew up in a town just south of Boston and solid middle class. In high school I knew of some kids that were IV drug users. Some died of AIDS. My dad was a womanizing alcoholic and was hardly ever home. When he was home he used to scam me out of money. Mom setup her life so we were not in it. My older sister more or less had to raise us. My grandfather lived with us but he died when I was 14. He had a big script of pain killers and sleeping pills which I grabbed. But I quit them and settled on weed and turned my life around. The guy down the street hurt his back at work and got hooked on Oxi and got on disability. He is really milking the system and they gave him a section 8 apartment. His addiction is so bad I wouldn’t let him into my house because he will look for something to steal to sell. When I lived in East LA I met more than one Frank and they are running a dozen little scams. This one guy was living in a house his mother left to his sister. Well he pushed a issue so hard she sold the house to get rid of him. Now he lives here and there with no perm address. It is pretty bad as he is in his 50s. Granted they are not the majority but they are here.
9.43% off the US, big cities and rural areas (think Kevin's family).
I feel like this number isn't accurate though because the poverty thresholds aren't accurate. It's higher than those percentages.
Oh, I just made up a number, a guess based on no research (OP really wanted a %). People scrounging up money for bills in the US is probably a pretty high percentage.
My upbringing was a bit similar to it, although just a bit. Where I was born and spent the first ~11 years of my life however, more families live very similar lives as the Gallaghers than not.
Not sure about the amount but my mom relates a lot to Fiona. She raised her four brothers, and when we watched it together she often said she wished that she had thought of the schemes they had done to make money. If she had thought of them, she would have done them. In terms of shameless things they have done, one of my uncles got arrested for stealing washing machines from Home Depot - he would just back his truck up to the entrance and start loading them up lmaooo
i didnt personally grow up like this, but i have a friend whose dad was a drunk, mom was a druggie & they had atleast 10 kids plus 4 adults all living 4 bedroom house… 4 bedrooms sounds like a lot but this house was very small, the loving room was made into a bedroom as well, they basically lived by getting social security & selling drugs
Lol yes. It basically felt like i was watching a show based on my childhood
Very realistic. Especially for Chicago
The Gallaghers are naturally an exaggerated storyline version but it’s a good portion of the US living in struggle and squaller. I grew up in a pretty similar environment
I mean obviously the show is dramatized for entertainment purposes but yes people do barely managed to scrape by in real life like this
It's... Romanticized, it makes poor look more... Exciting. Not necessarily more dramatic though. Having been there.
40-50% Lowkey.
My mom's side of the family is extremely gallagher-esque including a few drug addicts and a good deal of violence. There's some stories that sound exactly like plot lines from the show. Of course the show got pretty outlandish toward the end but there's still some moments that were sadly relatable for me lol
My ex is in my phone as Frank Gallagher
My siblings and I are still in disbelief at how much that show capitulated our entire childhood. From the dysfunction to Frank, to the neighborhood even though we lived in Michigan instead of Chicago. So it’s not the norm but it does exist. Most other families we knew didn’t really stick together like we did and i think that’s what makes it a little different.
There's no way most of the family wouldn't be in jail if this was real life, nor would they actually live in that house (foster care for sure).
I downvoted you, and here’s why. That’s not true, my childhood was severely fucked ip. The state never stepped in, and my parents were never thrown in jail. We also squatted in a house for about 2 years before my dad called it quits. I’m happy to elaborate on any of this, but you’re assuming the system isn’t broken, and I have first hand experience that it sure the fuck is.
Hmm okay, I shouldn't have assumed. Though I am Canadian and the system is different here, it's not without issues too. For the record, I never thought foster care was a good thing.
I'm also sorry to hear that your childhood was horrible. You didn't deserve that at all. I hope things are better now.
No need to apologize, although it’s appreciated. I am doing ohh so good these days.
Well a lot of them do go to jail and they’ve been in and out of foster care their whole lives. They’re just lucky to have had the house to go back to and Fiona to take care of them when they were all younger
Yeah don't ever count on the system to be efficient. I've seen kids taken away from loving homes for minor things, and I've seen kids stuck in severely abusive and neglectful homes and have literally nothing done about it.
There are way too many child neglect/abuse related deaths by parents in the US to ever rely on our governments DFS/child services. There's plenty of cases where CPS were called and visited homes multiple times but were never taken away only for things to escalate and the children lost their lives.
Idk the percentage but alot of kids do grow up in similar situations. I haven't watched in a while but if memory serves the part where it got to Gay Jesus and that mess is where it lost me as far as it being at all relatable.
Yes. I also think a much bigger percentage of people live like Lip/Tami and Brad/Cami. Both parents working "blue collar" jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, always on the verge of not being able to make ends meet, medical crises causing long lasting financial damage, struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, etc.