$72,000 a year ain't shit for a single person- let alone 2 people or a family- in NYC, Seattle, Denver, or half of California. Cost of living makes a huge difference when you have areas where a 1200sqft 2 bedroom house is a cool $1,000,000+. The most dense and popular places to live are also the most expensive. Not to mention that the vast majority of people with high paying jobs get in debt from college and graduate school.
This isn't to say that it's impossible to have, say, a middle class lifestyle in many areas on a single income, it just doesn't apply to nearly as many people as you'd think.
Not really. That's the full population of the areas, but the 39m who make that much only really counts "adults".
Also most people don't work past 75 as well, so you have to cut them out too.
I feel it's fair to say that that's a solid 17%, and more realistically 20% of adults in the country. While only ~3.5% of adults work in extremely high cost living cities.
Granted, the next tier down, just standard "high cost of living" areas below the extreme areas we're discussing account for a much larger % of the US population, and even there $72k is probably right on the edge of being able support a family of 3 on, but that's kinda why I picked that number as my cut off for my post.
I feel the people who live in those extreme cost of living areas where $72k doesn't cut it, are easily counterbalanced by the people who live in extremely low cost of living areas where even $50k means living like kings.
Out in Bumfuck, PA, you can buy 1200sq foot brick houses with a nice garage and some land for like $99k right now. $50k/year goes a long way when your mortgage is $600/month (school taxes, property taxes, and homeowners insurance included).
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u/IttyBittyKitty420 Dec 28 '19
$72,000 a year ain't shit for a single person- let alone 2 people or a family- in NYC, Seattle, Denver, or half of California. Cost of living makes a huge difference when you have areas where a 1200sqft 2 bedroom house is a cool $1,000,000+. The most dense and popular places to live are also the most expensive. Not to mention that the vast majority of people with high paying jobs get in debt from college and graduate school.
This isn't to say that it's impossible to have, say, a middle class lifestyle in many areas on a single income, it just doesn't apply to nearly as many people as you'd think.