An AI overview says there are about 134 million households in America and that the average household size is 2.5 people. AI Overview also says that in 2026, the median advertised price of a used car was $26,664, and that vehicles priced under $20,000 represent only about 31.8% of the used-car market. Finally, the AI overview tells us that approximately 76% to 77% of American households have a net worth of at least $26,664. This indicates that around 31.5 million households have a net worth of less than $26,664.
While most Americans have the dream of owning a home, this isn't possible for many Americans because they simply do not have the credit or income capacity to afford to purchase a home. Yet, this is generally okay because there are plenty of homes and apartments to rent, which, for the most part, are sufficient for their needs; though it does not represent a home that they own, it does provide them with shelter, electricity, indoor plumbing, and the like. On the other hand, except for some big cities such as NYC or Washington, D.C., or certain areas of cities, such as we typically find downtown, people often do not have good access to public transportation, which thus precludes them from readily getting to work, school, or basically getting done their day-to-day activities. This doesn't mean that people can't survive without a car, but it usually means that without a vehicle, life becomes more difficult, which signifies that the ownership of a vehicle is a true dividing line between those that are doing okay as contrasted to those that are truly struggling.
The thing about ownership, no matter what it might be, is that true ownership of anything only comes to fruition from those that have purchased a product outright or have paid off their purchase over some period of time. That is to say, those that are making mortgage payments, or car payments, and so on, don't actually own what they currently possess until it is paid off. So then, a fair dividing line as to whether an American household is doing okay or not is whether their net worth is at least equal to the median price of an advertised used car, which is $26,664, because if it is not, this basically reflects that they are not very secure in their life, and that a bad turn can make their life appreciably worse.
The fact that so many households in America actually don't have a reasonable or acceptable net worth in this the richest nation in aggregate in the history of the world, reflects that not all is well when it comes to fair opportunity, income distribution, welfare, and the like, which this government of, for, and by the people needs to do a much better job of addressing as contrasted to simply ignoring such, or mouthing platitudes. Indeed, part of why so many fall so short is the salient fact that this nation has a federal minimum wage which does not even come close to representing a "living wage," along with the fact that labor unions have been in steep decline over recent decades. Look, it's pretty straightforward: unless this government steps in on behalf of its most vulnerable to make it governmental policy that all those who labor receive a fair wage, then we will continue to have millions upon millions of Americans who have a net worth that is pathetic, and this ought not to be the case.