Never said it was, I just pointed to two areas where $70k doesn't go very far. Simple as that.
Edit: Your comment is very "I"-centric. Nobody cares about how many cars you have owned, because your life experience cannot be copy/pasted to everyone else. It's like you've missed the point.
Who do you think cooks, cleans, and serves drinks to people in SF/NYC? Sorry they aren't up to your standards living wise.
That's. All. I never said that that's how everyone lived, I just said that not everybody making 70k lives comfortably. That could be one person, it could be a handful.
I never blanket generalized, you did by saying everyone making $70k should live just fine. All I said was, "That's not always the case", and now you're trying to say that I think everyone living in those areas making $70k are scum.
You need to relax.
I was curious so looked it up, 75th % salary in SFbay is $76k. 25th % $113k. These are salaries from the ziprecruiter database- I put in Bartender - $34k, Teacher - $47k, Police - $60k (I know this is wildly off not including their overtime, they make like $150-250k in sf).
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/-in-San-Francisco,CA#Y...
This newer article says the amount of people in that bracket drpoped 10% 2019-2022. Wonder if that's people moving out, layoffs / biz shuttering, or maybe the covid checks ending lowering peoples income across the board. Those didn't affect the $100k+ market (limit was 80k i think?) which grew 10% regardless. That sucks if it's not them leaving I can only think of negative reasons aside from that or getting raises.
https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2023/09/18/median-...
Sorry, I'm just on a tangent now. Didn't mean to come off rude in general, though.
$70k is completely fine in Houston, Dallas, Austin. I made around that in each one. Almost everyone I know here in Denver makes 70k-100k max and I'm in the most trendy neighborhood downtown and these are (actual, like structural) engineers, lawyers, etc. My hair stylist makes 50k and has a nice 1br. Personally my rent is $4k which is absolutely common for a 2bdr in sfbay but mine is very nice, probably much newer than would be in SF. I made 90k living in Chicago. 40-60k living in Tampa. I always had a new car new a twin turbo z4, mazda 3, crv, sometimes I had 2 cars (sports/daily), always had my own place, etc. Zero debt. Went out ALL the time.
Everything isn't NYC or SFBay. I didn't start my career making 40k and go "OK great, now I'm off to San Francisco/NYC!!" I moved more west as my income grew.
The privilege.. I promise you that there are service industry people making 30-45k in SF/NYC who are absolutely content or happy with their lives whether it's living in a 10x10 shoebox or an attic in a loft with a roomate. I'm not doing that, but I have a lot of industry friends from a past life that do. The average hourly for a nyc bartender is something like $16-18. I used to do it on the side.
We're privileged beyond belief.