> cost of housing combined with manufacturing outsourcing

I think these are two separate issues.

> business school grads saving into their 40s to buy homes

For example, on this -- surely, if anything, manufacturing outsourcing has only made business school grads get paid more?

If you're not already familiar, take a look at Baumol's cost disease [0] for more on the phenomena at play here.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease

> business school grads saving into their 40s to buy homes

Median pay out of top b schools is ~$125-$150k. If you have a stay at home partner and a few kids, you prob need to make partner/Director before you can buy a townhouse in a Brooklyn.

That said, if you're single and work for an I Bank in Chicago, you'll be able to buy when you hit VP in your early 30s.

> buy a townhouse in a Brooklyn

This is not equivalent to “buy homes” — this is like saying they wait until 40 to buy a car because the Honda Civic they drove in their 20s doesn’t count, they need a BMW.

The system is working exactly as designed. The politicians are enriching their wealthy donors.

People feel like they _have_ to live in NYC/SF/LA when they make peanuts. If those people moved to the Midwest they'd have much lower CoL and probably still around the same pay. Amazon pays $15/h wherever you are.

The problem is that, if everyone took your advice, who would pick up the garbage and make the lattes?

The other problem is that if you want to "better your life" and stop working at Amazon for $15/hr, historically you had to go somewhere where those better jobs are (often NYC/SF/LA, depending on industry). Maybe with remote work becoming more common this will change, but telling people to live in low CoL areas unless they're already making a good income puts a serious damper on social mobility.

Maybe wages would go up if there were less people chasing the "dream" of living in SF/NYC/LA on a Starbucks barista career. If everyone took my advice the people left would get higher wages. That's supply and demand.

> historically you had to go somewhere where those better jobs are

There are plenty of good paying (maybe not FAANG's 500k salary but 6 figures nonetheless) jobs in Chicago, Atlanta, North Carolina RTP, Columbus, etc. The biggest contributor to social mobility is getting a good degree at a good school. If you get any engineering degree from any decent state school - doesn't matter mechanical or computer or chemical or whatever - you're making good money.

It's expensive to uproot which is why the working poor are often trapped in high cost of living areas. OTOH the midwest has had a huge problem for years of 'brain drain,' and that's because there are just fewer highly compensated jobs than what you'd expect in the midwest, and among these salaries are appreciably lower. People don't receive degrees at midwestern schools then move to NYC, SF, LA, wherever else without a job offer lined up, and if they take that offer its because its better than what midwestern companies who are even more active in recruiting of midwestern grads were offering them.

Yeah exactly. Cost of living is so much lower and one can actually live in some very nice smaller cities with plenty of restaurants, entertainment, and nature. Good quality of life.

If you are even luckier and can be a developer in those cities making 150k-200k you feel like royalty with a ton of extra money to travel often.

The only problem is in some of these places its hard to be a developer and cross 80k much less 150k. There is a reason why midwestern grads get poached to the coasts.

"Ivy League business school grads"

Is it possible they have to wait due to larger than average student loans (although many do come from wealth), or that the high paying jobs they seek are in HCOL areas?

I think you’re accurate about both.