Jordan Kohl

You may not realize it, but an empty front yard of perfectly mown grass as a status signal is mostly a cultural psyop from the mid 1940s forward and a relatively new American ideal. “During wartime, popular household magazines such as House Beautiful or Life propagated this image of an idealized version of home. According to these articles, this was the image that American soldiers were dreaming of returning to, so maintaining it became a matter of national duty. Thus, maintaining the home soon turned into keeping the lawn, "a challenge for the fighters at home" as an article in the House Beautiful, March 1942 edition, describes it. The expectation to maintain a green, well-trimmed lawn became a social norm, often tied to notions of responsibility, tidiness, and civic pride. This was no easy task. Articles of the time often depicted the lawn as a site of battle, where weeds, pests, and drought were presented in almost military terms, as enemy combatants to be overtaken. Pests, in particular the Japanese beetle, soon became the default image of this domestic war, with exaggerated parallels drawn between this invasive species and its country of origin.”

Many people don't include cars in their cost of living calculations. It's just another background tax of living in America.