If you are making $90k and living in SF you should be looking at studios or for roommates, not at one bedrooms. A one bedroom in a city like SF is a luxury.

Isn't that kind of the point of the original comment? That cost of living rises by location in almost perfect parallel to wages? So even though they make a relative lot of money, their standard of living doesn't actually increase much.

No, your standard of living absolutely won’t increase. I would actually say almost everyone living in that kind of city is (perhaps unknowingly?) choosing to sacrifice in that column. Depending on what you value, however, your quality of life may increase dramatically. And any efforts in frugality will likely yield a greater absolute return than they would in a less costly locale.

Wages don't rise exactly like that. There's a threshold under which it doesn't make much sense at all. If you're making under 100K - and certainly under 50k - I wouldn't be surprised if you could be much more financially comfortable in, say, Dallas. Chop your rent budget in half, lower your tax burden, you'll probably get a bigger chunk of monthly spending money.

90K is comfortably above the median per capita income literally anywhere in the Bay Area:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_locations_b...

I'm not saying 90K is a lot, but it is complete hyperbole to say it isn't sufficient to live in the Bay. 90K is right up there with the highest median household incomes.

$3500 if you want to live in a new building. I've been looking at 1 bedrooms and rent has come down in SF. Not hard to find one for less than $2500 now (in a good neighborhood).

No matter where you work in the Bay, there are decent 1br apartments within a fifteen minute bike ride that cost less than $2500 a month.

You can’t build wealth on $90K in Monaco either, but that says something about Monaco, not about “capitalism”.

That's what I don't get. People with high rent are typically living in one of the most expensive areas of the country. They are still wealthy, they are just spending it on living there.