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My brother lives in Houston, pays a ton of taxes, HOA fees and crazy expensive flood insurance to boot. No thanks, I'll stay in NY. Not to mention DMV fees and a whole host of other expenses. No state income tax, but they make it up in other ways. At least that's what he says. Plus, it's Texas.
I'm curious does your brother live in Sugarland which is part of metro Houston?
Not even close, if you add it all up, WNY is the most expensive and that's why it's has been losing population & business's every single year for the last 45 years and has no private investment but most of the rest country is booming with population growth, business growth & billion's of private investment
Houston is #1 and a boom Town and gained over 500,000 people since 2010 followed
closely by #2 Phoenix, #3 Austin #4 Charlotte and the rest of the pack Las Vegas, Dallas, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta, etc......
TX #38. Houston is a sweltering concrete jungle surrounded by a bug and snake infested swamp with bad air pollution, no natural lakes, an industrial coastline, tons of poverty, traffic, and no its not even that cheap.
AZ #34. I'd rather live in a volcano on the sun than live in Phoenix. Though other parts of AZ are pretty, Phoenix is a dusty, hot, brown, ugly illegal immigrant filled chithole.
Austin is cool, no argument there. Then its surrounded by the rest of Texas. No thanks.
Atlanta just sucks, straight up. Unless you like getting robbed and sitting in traffic all day. Buckhead is nice but much more expensive than WNY. Seattle and San Diego are WAY more expensive than WNY. I'd pick San Diego any day of the week over Buffalo, of course, until the mortgage payment comes due.
Las Vegas. Nice to visit until you realize you are surrounded by nothing but 300 miles of desert in every direction. A city filled with casinos, pawn shops, payday loan stores, barbed wire, scumbags, and illegals. Cookie cutter homes. https://goo.gl/maps/m1x3eRNkngD2
wow how badly I want to live here...not. I'll visit occasionally, get drunk, vomit in your yard when I'm done, and return back to trees and water.
TX #38. Houston is a sweltering concrete jungle surrounded by a bug and snake infested swamp with bad air pollution, no natural lakes, an industrial coastline, tons of poverty, traffic, and no its not even that cheap.
AZ #34. I'd rather live in a volcano on the sun than live in Phoenix. Though other parts of AZ are pretty, Phoenix is a dusty, hot, brown, ugly illegal immigrant filled chithole.
Austin is cool, no argument there. Then its surrounded by the rest of Texas. No thanks.
Atlanta just sucks, straight up. Unless you like getting robbed and sitting in traffic all day. Buckhead is nice but much more expensive than WNY. Seattle and San Diego are WAY more expensive than WNY. I'd pick San Diego any day of the week over Buffalo, of course, until the mortgage payment comes due.
Las Vegas. Nice to visit until you realize you are surrounded by nothing but 300 miles of desert in every direction. A city filled with casinos, pawn shops, payday loan stores, barbed wire, scumbags, and illegals. Cookie cutter homes. https://goo.gl/maps/m1x3eRNkngD2
wow how badly I want to live here...not. I'll visit occasionally, get drunk, vomit in your yard when I'm done, and return back to trees and water.
Hit the nail on the head! All the reasons I would never move elsewhere.
There are tons of attractions all around the major cities in Texas. I have lived near Austin for 5 years.
There is so much being built in all the cities, it literally changes every year you go there.
Houston has the largest medical corridor in the world. There is so much to do, great restaurants, parks, zoo. I haven't even come close to seeing all of it.
The NFL does not have the superbowl hosted in a s-hole, so keep that in mind.
There are some decent beaches a short drive away, and some grubby beaches. Not all perfect, but the longer i'm here the more I learn.
Dallas is growing and evolving as well. Skyscrapers are going up on both sides of the interstate, while they build the interstate. The landscape is a little boring in Dallas, but again there is a lot to do. My wife and I travel up there for a short weekend trip a few times a year and always enjoy ourselves.
Austin is fine, beautiful rolling hills, nice lake, great place to listen to music live, or hike and bike. Nice weather probably 10-11 months out of the year.
The little towns between the big cities are charming. There are some German Villages, lots of history, excellent food, and FRIENDLY PEOPLE.
Coming from NY, my wife and I thought that people were up to something or trying to run a scam on us by talking to us. Seriously everybody talks to you, at the grocery store, or at restaurants.
My friends are very different and interesting. People who move to Austin are from all over. Some of my best friends are first generation Americans with Mexican Parents. Others are from California, the Midwest, all over the US. Just being down here a few years, I have learned so much about different cultures, it is quite interesting.
I have not met folks that are doom and gloom, the sun does something positive to ones outlook on life.
I think a lot of people, my friends from NY included haven't been to a lot of places, so they judge by what they read in books. Texas is nothing like what you have read in a book.
There are tons of attractions all around the major cities in Texas. I have lived near Austin for 5 years.
There is so much being built in all the cities, it literally changes every year you go there.
Houston has the largest medical corridor in the world. There is so much to do, great restaurants, parks, zoo. I haven't even come close to seeing all of it.
The NFL does not have the superbowl hosted in a s-hole, so keep that in mind.
There are some decent beaches a short drive away, and some grubby beaches. Not all perfect, but the longer i'm here the more I learn.
Dallas is growing and evolving as well. Skyscrapers are going up on both sides of the interstate, while they build the interstate. The landscape is a little boring in Dallas, but again there is a lot to do. My wife and I travel up there for a short weekend trip a few times a year and always enjoy ourselves.
Austin is fine, beautiful rolling hills, nice lake, great place to listen to music live, or hike and bike. Nice weather probably 10-11 months out of the year.
The little towns between the big cities are charming. There are some German Villages, lots of history, excellent food, and FRIENDLY PEOPLE.
Coming from NY, my wife and I thought that people were up to something or trying to run a scam on us by talking to us. Seriously everybody talks to you, at the grocery store, or at restaurants.
My friends are very different and interesting. People who move to Austin are from all over. Some of my best friends are first generation Americans with Mexican Parents. Others are from California, the Midwest, all over the US. Just being down here a few years, I have learned so much about different cultures, it is quite interesting.
I have not met folks that are doom and gloom, the sun does something positive to ones outlook on life.
I think a lot of people, my friends from NY included haven't been to a lot of places, so they judge by what they read in books. Texas is nothing like what you have read in a book.
That's great for you. But the two things i hate, oppresive heat and traffic, are found in the big texas cities.
I think it would have to be adjusted by cost of living and family size.
Cost of Living (CoL) is a logical fallacy that is only relevant if one ignores the wealthy. If one needs to consider the CoL of an area then they're relatively poor. The CoL is used to give people an excuse if they're struggling (if CoL is high) or identify places (with low CoL) they can go to not struggle so much.
Keep in mind that median household income takes ALL households and any income into account, with the median(aka middle)household income showing where half the households are(above or below).
You're partly correct. But there are three problems: 1) definition of household, 2) there's no explanation why "households" matter, 3) There are many more poor households than very wealthy households (all the poor ones bring down the median; hiding the income disparity).
Ever wonder why "household income" is even looked at? Why would "household income" matter vs "individual income"? Wouldn't it be because incomes are so low that it matters if a person is supporting more people than just himself? For example, if a person is making $500,000/yr. or $5,000,000/yr. who cares if a spouse and two children are being supported?
The problem with this site is it's using a perversely low standard for "middle class". Again, it's based on median. Median measures poverty; not wealth. If one wants to know where they stand among the poor, use median.
The one thing you're either forgetting, or don't know, is that when the IRS and US Census Bureau totals income, it rounds down the income of the very wealthy by capping the maximum of their incomes (it varies from IRS to US Census Bureau). Incomes above that cap aren't considered.
If one takes all the published IRS filing data concerning incomes, it doesn't come anywhere close to the published Total U.S. Individual Income. If I remember correctly, it comes to about $7 trillion at a time when it was stated to be $12 trillion. Consider how much higher the median would be if we added that missing $5 trillion? And that's assuming $12 trillion wasn't a low-ball reporting due to incomes that are deferred or otherwise not counted due to the tax code.
Ever wonder why the IRS tax tables don't continue higher than they do? Part of the reason is to avoid reporting specifics. The other reason is to conceal the cap.
So, why wouldn't it make sense to figure out everyone's individual fair share of all income? "Mean" purports to show what we do have. Doesn't it make sense to show what we should have? It would be easy, take total income and divide by income earners. Leave no income out and only divide by self-supporting (no need to have the paper boy bringing down the median) income earners.
That's great for you. But the two things i hate, oppresive heat and traffic, are found in the big texas cities.
You might hate the heat & Traffic, but millions & millions of others are moving to TX, NV, AZ, NC, SC etc...
Everyone is moving and investing to where everyone is and wants to be and no one is moving & investing where no one wants to be and where people & business's are fleeing 45 years in row like in Buffalo. You would think something must be wrong that Buffalo & WNY have been losing population every single year for 45 years in the row
The one thing you're either forgetting, or don't know, is that when the IRS and US Census Bureau totals income, it rounds down the income of the very wealthy by capping the maximum of their incomes (it varies from IRS to US Census Bureau). Incomes above that cap aren't considered.
If one takes all the published IRS filing data concerning incomes, it doesn't come anywhere close to the published Total U.S. Individual Income. If I remember correctly, it comes to about $7 trillion at a time when it was stated to be $12 trillion. Consider how much higher the median would be if we added that missing $5 trillion? And that's assuming $12 trillion wasn't a low-ball reporting due to incomes that are deferred or otherwise not counted due to the tax code.
Ever wonder why the IRS tax tables don't continue higher than they do? Part of the reason is to avoid reporting specifics. The other reason is to conceal the cap.
So, why wouldn't it make sense to figure out everyone's individual fair share of all income? "Mean" purports to show what we do have. Doesn't it make sense to show what we should have? It would be easy, take total income and divide by income earners. Leave no income out and only divide by self-supporting (no need to have the paper boy bringing down the median) income earners.
I knew that the income is capped by the IRS.
Mean will still skew things higher in relation to most people in the US. Median will also be skewed a little bit higher, but it also includes the income of "all" households. That would make sense, as it gives a sense of what is above or below in a neighborhood/city/state/country.
Households can range 1 person to many.
Poverty is viewed as a family of 4 making less than $25k(actually the level is a little bit less). This will also depend on family size.
Household income includes income from all persons in that household. So, if dad makes 70k, mom makes 60k and the teenage son makes say 8k at his job, the household income is $138k.
Per capita(literally "per head") income can also be skewed by children that can't enter the workforce. So, even going by individual can be skewed, unless you start with those at an employable age. It is also a mean/average measurement. While it is a wiki, here is some info on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_capita_income
Also, what is considered to be one's "fair share"? People make what they make and it essentially sounds like you are referring to a redistribution of wealth. What are you viewing as being wealthy?
I understand what you are referring to, but I also think this comes down to wages and location/relocation as well.
You might hate the heat & Traffic, but millions & millions of others are moving to TX, NV, AZ, NC, SC etc...
Everyone is moving and investing to where everyone is and wants to be and no one is moving & investing where no one wants to be and where people & business's are fleeing 45 years in row like in Buffalo. You would think something must be wrong that Buffalo & WNY have been losing population every single year for 45 years in the row
You might hate the heat & Traffic, but millions & millions of others are moving to TX, NV, AZ, NC, SC etc...
Everyone is moving and investing to where everyone is and wants to be and no one is moving & investing where no one wants to be and where people & business's are fleeing 45 years in row like in Buffalo. You would think something must be wrong that Buffalo & WNY have been losing population every single year for 45 years in the row
Again, if those people want to spend hundreds of hours a year in traffic sitting in AC for 6 months out of the year, great. I just cannot.
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