In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income”

Re:In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income” by kelnos on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @12:54PM (#14195488)

This is something I still don't get, even as an American. I live by myself in a 950 sq ft (~88 sq m) apartment, and that's already more space than I know what to do with. Sure, add a spouse and 2 or 3 kids and my space needs would increase, but I can't imagine needing 8-10x as much space, ever. Maybe 3x, at most 4x.

I grew up in a fairly large house (I don't recall the size, but two floors, 6 bedrooms, kitchen, formal dining room, living room, family room, 3 bathrooms, basement filled with junk; so, fairly large -- semi-rural Maryland, where space was cheap in the 80s/90s). My parents weren't hoarders, though they did accumulate stuff. After my sister and I moved out and my mom passed away, my dad lived in a giant house by himself, couldn't maintain it, and also felt like he couldn't move because the house wasn't in good enough shape to sell.

I just don't get this need for more and more space. It just encourages you to buy more stuff that you don't need, and takes more time/effort/money to maintain. I hesitate to "tell people how to live", but this keeping up with the Joneses attitude is a component of what causes cost of living to rise and is ultimately a zero-sum game.

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Re:In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income” by microcolonel on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @01:08PM (#14195696)

I know people who don't have the discipline to keep spaces open, but large open spaces can be wonderful (and easy to maintain). The tough thing is maintaining large arrays of intricate special-purpose rooms which you don't need and which are full of stuff that makes it feel small nonetheless.

Space is wonderful for doing things like dancing, hosting guests, exercise, communal/family cooking (sprouting many kilograms of chickpeas, fermenting 40+qt of kimchi).

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Re:In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income” by archeantus on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @01:38PM (#14196050)

There are certainly times I regret having so much space for our kids to clutter, but we ultimately bought it as a place for us to grow into. My wife is expecting our 6th child later this year, and our house has 6 bedrooms. So in that sense, it isn't insanely lavish, but a comfortable place to raise a large family.

Also, as the commenter below mentioned, we do enjoy hosting people for parties and family get-togethers. We spend a good amount of energy and time and money on these activities that are for the enjoyment of other people.

Wealthy people often build massive palaces to honor their own greatness and inflate their egos, I can assure you this is not one of those homes :).

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Re:In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income” by HeyLaughingBoy on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @01:42PM (#14196111)

A lot of it isn't "need" for more space; rather, it's that all that is available. I've been living in the same 3.3k sq-ft house for 10 years. There's simply nothing smaller in my area. OK, one retired farmer down the road has a house that's about 1200 sq ft, but that's by far the smallest house.

It's a pattern I found recurring as we were looking at houses: unless you wanted a 100 year-old house (which could be a good or bad idea), there was simply nothing under 3,000 sq ft on the lot sizes we were looking at.

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Re:In Bay Area, six-figure salaries are “low income” by scholia on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @01:39PM (#14196068)

If you were a Mormon living in Utah, you might need space for three or four wives, not to mention lots of children...

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