We’ve had similar threads before, but it’s been a while and there have been some more shows on, so here’s another.
I just finished watching DEXTER Season 4 on DVD. Dexter is a blood splatter pattern analyst- a highly specialized job that requires postgraduate education and training so he would earn more than most detectives of similar experience and age certainly, but I seriously doubt he would earn more than $100,000 per year and that’s before taxes.
What we know about his family is that his biological father left him a very modest house somewhere a couple of hours from Miami (not beach front or anything like, just small and modest) which even if it was paid for wouldn’t generate a lot by way of rental income or sale (at best it would make a nice down payment on his current home). His adoptive father was a cop and not wealthy and any insurance or other money would have been split with his sister, plus IIRC some reference was made to his using his inheritance from his adoptive dad for college.
On however much he earns or has in the bank he manages to support a wife and three kids. The oldest two kids presumably receive Social Security or some form of Aid to Dependent Children (I know it’s not called that anymore but can’t remember what it’s called now) since their father is dead but as he was a convict they wouldn’t receive a lot- certainly not enough to do more than defray the expenses of their upbringing- and while his wife is a RN she became a stay-at-home mother when their baby was born, and they live in a very nice neighborhood (not mansions or even McMansions but very comfortable middle to upper-middle class). This would be believable on Dexter’s salary, but he wouldn’t be putting a lot in savings.
Unboxed spoilers (but not major- unrelated to this seasons murders anyway):
Add to this that he’s still paying the rent on the waterfront apartment he had before he was married. While it’s not a luxury apartment it’s a decent 1 BR and on or just off of a dock, so while I don’t have a clue what such an apartment would go for in Miami I would think at very least $1000 per month plus utilities and that’s extremely conservative. He’s also always buying his “equipment”- lots and lots of heavy duty plastic and other items- and he keeps a boat which would cost insurance and dock rental and whatever other expenses are entailed with boat ownership in Miami.
So short post long, I just don’t think there’s any way Dexter could afford to do the things he does and live the lifestyle he lives on his income. He doesn’t seem to rob his victims, though it’s never been specifically said that he doesn’t.
Who are others who seem to live way beyond their incomes?
Means or money? They are two specific things. Many people live beyond their means without the money and many live beyond their money without the means.
Penny on Big Bang Theory lives alone in a similar appartment to Sheldon and Leonard, eventhough she works at the Cheescake factory and the guys both are PhD’s working at Caltech.
The Brady Bunch. Dad was an architect in the 70s and raised a big family in LA, presumably Laurel Canyon, with a live-in maid. The Partridge Family lived across the street.
Rita’s ex husband owned their former home outright, and her keeping it was part of their divorce settlement, so it would have gone to her after his death. Their new house is bigger and in a nicer neighbourhood, so they’d probably need a home loan, but only a small one.
Dexter also has a pretty cheap lifestyle - he doesn’t drink to excess, do drugs, go on vacations, buy big TVs or computer games - so he was probably able to save up a lot of money.
And up until very recently, he lived alone. You save a lot of money when you’re only feeding one mouth, only one shower per day, the lights are only on in one room at a time, you aren’t driving people to this and that. On top of that, I don’t think he had much of a social/sex life, so his entertainment (movies, restaurants, bars) budget would be very small. I’m not saying it’s possible to live his lifestyle, but I don’t think it’s that far off.
Actually, Sheldon & Leonard’s living room and bedrooms are huge, while Penny lives in a cramped one bedroom. She also brings groceries home, while the guys seem to live on takeout food.
One of the most glaring examples I always figured (and Mad Magazine agreed) was the absurdly fantastic penthouse apartment Lois Lane had in the first Superman movie, on a reporter’s salary.
In several episodes, Al made hiring decisions, and he didn’t seem to have any immediate supervisor in the store itself. I’d say he wasn’t just a salesman but the store manager. Of course, a shoe store manager wouldn’t have a lavish salary, either, but it’s conceivable that he could at least afford to buy a modestly priced house.
Of course, it’s not like *Married…with Children *was all about realism!
How about Rachel and Monica in Friends? My husband is a chef… there’s no way we could afford a large two-bedroom in New York on what he makes… or even what he would make doing a similar job in New York. And Rachel is a waitress? How are they making enough for that? I guess there was something about Monica’s grandma and rent-control, I guess, but still. They’re always going out, spending money on coffee and such.
Rachel’s rich parents pay for her to have that lifestyle. Later on after she got the job at Ralph Lauren there was an episode about how her and someone else (either Ross or Chandler) make a lot more money then any of the others.
ETA, it was probably Chandler. They made it quite clear throughout the series that Chandler was making enough money to support both him and Joey in the other apartment.
You know, it’s actually possible to participate in a CS thread using one’s own thoughts and opinions rather than simply [del]leeching off[/del] linking to TV Tropes.
In answer to the OP, I never understand how Lois Lane in the '78 Superman movie afforded her apartment, or how Lois & Richard owned that enormous house on the waterfront in the 2006 pseudo-sequel.
ETA: I need a fist-shaking smilie for Bryan Ekers (not to mention myself for not reading through the thread first).
I don’t think so. A big deal was made, early on in the series (like in the first or second episode) that her parents had cut her off; her compadres have to teach her how to live on a budget, which involves cutting up her credit cards and returning some very expensive boots (or shoes) she purchased to comfort herself over that, ah, trauma. She, Joey, and Phoebe were making a lot less money than the other three in the early seasons, though by the end of the show I think Joey was making more money than any of them.
I never thought Dexter lived extravagantly… I always imagined he had TONS of money socked away because of a very frugal lifestyle.
How about Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City? She lived in a nice apartment in Manhattan and owned something like $60,000 worth of shoes and her income came mostly from writing a sex column in a newspaper.
Somewhere late in the series Friend, it was explaining (probably in response to Internets like this) that the apartment was rent controlled, having originally been leased by Ross & Monica’s grandmother, back before NYC rents skyrocketed. Monica and Rachel were still living under her lease.
