You can call it a FAANG salary if it makes you feel better, but if you can't afford your own place, you are not in the middle class, you are living in poverty.

> moving to some other place with possible salary reduction

Well, we just proved that pretty much everybody in tech can work remote, with no effect on the profitability of the companies, so why should there be a reduction in salary working some place else?

> you are not in the middle class, you are living in poverty.

I agree with you, certain areas in US are very expensive and FAANG salary may not be enough to fit middle class definition.

> we just proved that pretty much everybody in tech can work remote, with no effect on the profitability of the companies

Which companies? Some companies(FAANG and ecosystem) benefited from COVID because of significant market shifts online and this is not relevant to remote job, but I am not sure about many other companies. Also, another impact on revenue was fiscal policies (0 rates), and there can be cooldown soon too.

> Which companies?

Software companies for sure, but I was working at a Stock Brokerage/FinTech/Media company in NYC when covid hit, and pretty much everybody from admins to sales to execs were working remote--and were actually MORE productive, inasmuch a they didn't arrive pre-exhausted from a train ride from Jersey.

Some jobs (janitorial, manufacturing) can't be remote, but I can't name a single tech or service-sector company which was materially affected by remote work, can you?

I think you can make ideal employee more productive (reduce commute and all office life bs), but the major risk is bad actors: dudes who "silently quit", work 3 jobs or just getting lazy at home without manager watching their backs constantly. CEOs probably have some internal metrics, and make decisions based on them.