The social media van life trend is one thing. People choosing to live in their cars for financial reasons is another thing. Occasionally the two groups intersect, but there are plenty of cases where someone is living in their van/car so they can afford to stay in or near a location they can’t otherwise afford.

Some people have major debt, medical expenses, family situations etc that drove the original decision. Some people decide to start posting about their car life because why not? But don’t confuse the glitzy social media version of van life for the average experience.

Yes, but you can’t really tell who is one category or the other. We also have no idea what the average experience is. For non-stealth campers, it’s much easier to tell.

Having spent quite a bit of time on the road, it’s usually pretty easy to spot the difference.

That is if you even notice the stealth campers (to your point). But that’s really the original point - most people don’t notice the car dwelling locals, who spend a lot of their time making sure they aren’t noticed.

We have an RV problem so we’ve also gotten good at picking out stealth campers, not that it matter much since I really don’t mind someone who is just sleeping in our neighborhood if they aren’t doing anything crazy.

People sleeping in cars are also common, and pretty easy to spot since unlike a van, it isn’t common to block out all windows in a car. I’m guessing those are all economic cases.

by this logic everyone in Hollywood is a rich movie star because that’s who visible in the media, not the various set designers food workers and all the many others.

Looking at social media influencers and assuming they’re a good representation of the average van liver is like looking at a celebrity and assuming everyone in Hollywood is like them.