Get out into the country proper, and you'll find plenty of rich people to hang out with.

They don't tend to live in villages or towns, and they don't socialise with "townies", and they certainly won't share any interests with some nouveau-rich tech worker who thinks they're wealthy

Sure, but then you're not taking advantage of cost of living differences (first line of my post).

You seem to have this idea that everyone here thinks they're uber wealthy or whatever. It's just relative to the locale. If you move to a depressed northern town with the idea that it's going to be some utopian bliss in your massive house then you are in for a shock. That's what is being discussed.

Obviously there are nice places outside of metro areas. They have a price tag to match, or not, the land isn't for sale.

You're also illustrating the other side of it - it's not easy to slot into a different social class (upwards or downwards).

I've lived all over the UK. I think Cardiff was the hardest to "slot into" - an English accent in Wales can prompt some interesting interactions ;) Though small-town England is also a nightmare of "if you didn't grow up here, fuck off".

Social class in the UK is all about where you were educated, it has nothing to do with your income (same for Australia, but apparently not the USA, though I think that's changing). Your accent, your manners, whether you call it "dinner" or "tea", whether you go to the toilet, the lavatory or the bathroom. If you actually care about social class, these are the things that matter. Income doesn't.

But attitude is the big one. You can fit in and make friends anywhere with an open attitude. People are people. Friendships can easily overcome class and income differences if there's mutual respect, empathy, and a desire to be friends.

In the US at least, that’s a false dichotomy.

The US Midwest and South have a dozen relatively cheap cities to live in where it isn’t depressed.

Housing supply/demand balance is a prime contributor to CoL, and the south/Midwest generally doesn’t have the draconian housing restrictions that the coastal cities have.

As someone currently having moved from the southwest, to bay area, to northeast, and now living in the south, you underestimate the cultural changes. I have relatively little in common with people who grew up here. They're fine people, but they're not people who I can talk to past small talk.

And in a fair number of these places, there's the same hostility to people moving in as the bay area.