Maybe try to understand that your taxes are composed of more than just federal+state and that Medicare+Social Security+CA SDI actually adds a substantial amount?

> luxury high rise

Have you seen real estate prices recently? Luxury high rise has you paying much more than 4k if you're anywhere close to a good neighborhood. And if you're trying to argue you can spend 2k to live in a 1930s apartment in the Tenderloin while making $250k, I think you're too far in the echo chamber to have your mind changed.

> Health insurance is covered by your employer

This is in the context of startups, so no, it's not. The employer will subsidize it but it isn't free.

SSI maxes at 140K, so you're paying an effective 3.5% rate at 250K. The effective federal and state tax rates for 250K of AGI are going to be below 32 and 9% and they won't be affected by any current Biden plan. The calculator I'm looking at[0] suggests an effective federal rate of 23.5%, CA rate of 8%, and FICA (SSI + Medicare) of 5%, for a total effective rate of just over 36% overall, 13% (or 32,000 a year) off of what you suggested. This more or less matches my experience with an AGI of around that much, although in practice my effective rates were lower than those.

To put that in perspective, that ~32,000 you're misestimating by is enough to afford a second apartment, or, you know, the annual SF minimum wage.

To hit an effective federal tax rate of 32%, you need to be making 800K/year. To hit an effective overall tax rate of 49%, you need to make more than 2 million/year (less after this year, but not a whole lot less, like 1.8 million a year or something).

> And if you're trying to argue you can spend 2k to live in a 1930s apartment in the Tenderloin while making $250k, I think you're too far in the echo chamber to have your mind changed.

I can find a handful of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments with W/D and dishwasher for <=3K. I can find plenty under 3.5K. Like, tons. And that's on zillow. You can usually find better rates on craigslist. "I want to live in a luxury high-rise downtown" is a very particular interpretation of the requirements you laid out.

[0]: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#oDlsn...

$400 a month for groceries? In SF?

A single meal at an "affordable" restaurant is often $30 after tip.

I've never considered nor seen anybody counting eating out as groceries. Is that normal?

We see this pretty consistently in media where crocodile tears are shed over a family making 500k and barely able to keep it together but you look at the budget and they are saving 80k in retirement and spending 20k on travel or whatever.