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Obviously results can skew if you decide to look at core areas and remove the outlying areas, then places become excruciatingly more expensive in every city but most prominently in New York where Manhattan and Brooklyn are tops in rent, whereas the other boroughs drop off somewhat from those two and then New Jersey drops off a bit more from there. This also doesn't factor in taxes or such, which vary for all these places and can add more stress on a family or whatever we're comparing here.
Also, in some of these cities, a larger share of your paycheck will go to housing (rent/mortgage). Factor all this in when you decide on which place is better or worse for middle class or lower class people on the socioeconomic spectrum.
Both regions equally suck IMO. I would stay clear out of those places if I was not super rich or extremely poor. You're better off being middle class somewhere in the Great Plains, Southeast (sans Florida), or non-coastal Pacific NW. I speak from experience. The middle class struggle the most in places that are denser in population.
This thread is ridiculous. I thought this was a "City vs. City" forum, not a "Region vs. Region" one. It really depends on the city/metropolitan area in the Northeast or the West.
Second of all, social mobility is difficult without a college degree anywhere. If you don't have a college degree, you better at least have some trade skills or some programming ability. This goes for every city or region in the U.S.
New York and San Francisco are expensive places to live. And for good reason. You are statistically more likely to make more money in these locales over the long run, whether you are a lowly barista or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. If you want to launch a career or even just find a job, a large and prosperous city is always ideal, regardless of the region.
Lastly, cost of living is highly variable on the individual. The only thing that is expensive in New York is rent. If you are willing to live simply (i.e. not going out every night), you can enjoy a fairly comfortable lifestyle in New York.
I'm tired of people making stereotypes about entire regions with millions of people. The person is much more important than the place.
I'm tired of people screaming "OMG that's a stereotype!" to every single post on this forum. Technically, you've made a stereotype with your post. Pretty much anything being said on here can be construed as a stereotype. Get over it.
Also, cost of living is not the only thing that affects being securely middle class. You have to factor in what kind of people are living around you, your own ethnic & racial appearance, prevailing mentality & political attitude in the region, and how you will be treated because of it. And beyond that, you have to consider your own happiness in respect to all of this. I know from experience that I would not be happy being lower middle class in a place like the Washington, DC metro. For one, I am white and white lower middle class is continually becoming rarer in the BosWash corridor cities. Atop of that, racial tensions out there are so bad that I would probably be despised by many others in my social class, possibly putting my financial stability at risk. This is just one example of how one little characteristic can go terribly wrong. This could happen in any part of the country, yes but these things are magnified 10x in denser areas like the BosWash corridor and California. I would never want to raise children in any of those areas.
Both regions equally suck IMO. I would stay clear out of those places if I was not super rich or extremely poor. You're better off being middle class somewhere in the Great Plains, Southeast (sans Florida), or non-coastal Pacific NW. I speak from experience. The middle class struggle the most in places that are denser in population.
Both of those regions aren't completely dense though and have areas that have an overall COL around or below the national average.
I'm tired of people screaming "OMG that's a stereotype!" to every single post on this forum. Technically, you've made a stereotype with your post. Pretty much anything being said on here can be construed as a stereotype. Get over it.
Also, cost of living is not the only thing that affects being securely middle class. You have to factor in what kind of people are living around you, your own ethnic & racial appearance, prevailing mentality & political attitude in the region, and how you will be treated because of it. And beyond that, you have to consider your own happiness in respect to all of this. I know from experience that I would not be happy being lower middle class in a place like the Washington, DC metro. For one, I am white and white lower middle class is continually becoming rarer in the BosWash corridor cities. Atop of that, racial tensions out there are so bad that I would probably be despised by many others in my social class, possibly putting my financial stability at risk. This is just one example of how one little characteristic can go terribly wrong. This could happen in any part of the country, yes but these things are magnified 10x in denser areas like the BosWash corridor and California. I would never want to raise children in any of those areas.
There around 45 million people living along the Northeast Corridor and 55 million people living in the "Northeast" census region (PA to Maine). It's incredibly diverse area that varies by city and neighborhood. The same could be said for the West Coast. I was merely pointing out the difficulty in comparing entire regions with any specificity.
As for the second thing you said: the white, lower-middle class is becoming rarer pretty much everywhere. Deindustrialization and the rise of a financialized information economy has pretty much gutted the lower-middle class in much of the Western world. Race relations in the Northeast are not any worse than they are anywhere else in the country. And I highly doubt these racial tensions that are somehow unique to the Northeast would put your financial stability at risk.
Race relations in the Northeast are not any worse than they are anywhere else in the country.
That's funny.
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