As a general rule, comedies do not depict poor people, and even when they do they tend to only include the reality of poverty when its convenient for the plot or for a joke. That's arguably fair enough - a comedy that realistically portrayed run down apartments, working multiple minimum wage jobs, and having issues paying for basic necessities such as food and healthcare would be a pretty depressing comedy. There's a reason we watch shows about well off, beautiful people. It makes us feel good. But the families in Modern Family are not just rich. They're super rich. Ed O'Neil's character Jay, the patriarch of the family, has had a successful enough business to pay for down payments on the houses for both of his children, and then simply forgot about it. Gloria can be a stay at home mother, whilst Cameron Tucker barely spends an entire season in a paying job. At one point, Mitchell even goes without a job for a month, something that had such a negligible effect that he didn't even tell Cameron. Money has never been, and never will be an issue for them. In contrast to this, the vast majority of Americans will never see a fraction of their wealth, with over half of them struggling financially.
Currently living the dream by studying in Wales and writing articles about the things I love for beer money. My proudest achievements are teaching myself Accordion and getting my head round the off-side rule.
