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It's wrong because incomes are not higher in those other cities. Your claim is empirically incorrect. Also, the article is not saying that incomes are higher in those cities, as you've suggested. The article is saying that a dollar goes further in Memphis than it does in New York, which is a fact so obvious to everyone that there was no point in writing an article about it.
A dollar goes further in Philly than it does in NY. A dollar goes further in Memphis than it does in Philly. A dollar goes further in rural Oklahoma than it does in Memphis. A dollar goes further in Santiago, Chile than it does in rural Oklahoma. A dollar goes further in Namibia than it does in Santiago. And so on...
bruh my immigrant ass parents raised my brother and i on 50kish total income. I honestly think the outer boroughs are cheaper than most of low cost of living America. People in the rest of the country think Mcdonalds is considered cheap food whereas here in Brooklyn I used to be able to pick up a box of chicken over rice for 5 bucks or some Chinese bbq pork rice for like 4 dollars. Mcdonalds was considered a treat when I was growing up.
It's pretty crazy how hard it is to reach $100K here in NYC. You would think with the high cost of living here, jobs would try to pay better salaries, but companies can be surprisingly cheap. I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor and Master's degree and started out only making around $32K. It wasn't until last year where I finally got up to the 100K threshold. So that means it took me 13 years to get there, and I've had to switch jobs twice over those 13 years to help speed that up a bit! And it's hard to believe I work the SAME amount of hours now than I did when I was making poverty income. Companies today can be quite abusive with the amount of work and hours they require from people only making $30-40K.
It's pretty crazy how hard it is to reach $100K here in NYC. You would think with the high cost of living here, jobs would try to pay better salaries, but companies can be surprisingly cheap. I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor and Master's degree and started out only making around $32K. It wasn't until last year where I finally got up to the 100K threshold. So that means it took me 13 years to get there, and I've had to switch jobs twice over those 13 years to help speed that up a bit! And it's hard to believe I work the SAME amount of hours now than I did when I was making poverty income. Companies today can be quite abusive with the amount of work and hours they require from people only making $30-40K.
New York has some unique factors that most other cities don't-
1. You have people paying ridiculously below market rate because they are in a RC/RS, Project, Mitchell Lama, or some other housing situation where some can afford this. I know a good handful in NYC who pay only 30-40% of what Market Rate would be in their neighborhood. This can attune to 20-30K savings per year.
2. New York attracts rich people, who have rich families. I could manage a 40K a year job when family is subsidizing my housing, phone, and paid for my college in full.
Well many of us in NYC don't own a car. So subtract out the cost of buying a car, car insurance, and gas. We are doing just fine living off $35K.
If you don't own a car in NYC it's because you can't afford one and are making trade-offs (living in a more expensive area that's more convenient but eats up income). There are very, very few people in NYC who can own a car but choose not too. Go to some of the most expensive neighborhoods in NYC, plenty of residents own cars (street parking is impossible to find).
As for $100K in NYC, there's no way it's equivalent to $36K. $100K is a middle of the road (maybe top 40%?) salary in NYC but is a top 10% salary almost anywhere else (apart from major metros).
The problem is that official NYC income statistics are skewed by all of the freeloaders on welfare and those that can only survive in NYC on low wage jobs because of welfare. If you strip out welfare cases, my bet would be that the median NYC income is somewhere around $80K.
If you don't own a car in NYC it's because you can't afford one and are making trade-offs (living in a more expensive area that's more convenient but eats up income). There are very, very few people in NYC who can own a car but choose not too. Go to some of the most expensive neighborhoods in NYC, plenty of residents own cars (street parking is impossible to find).
Well I CAN afford a car, but in my case, the cost of having one would far exceed the benefit. Here in Queens, all stores are walking distance. And since I live alone, I don't need to drive and buy in big quantities. I can walk 5 mins to the supermarket and carry everything I need. And any other items I need to buy in big quantities (like paper towel, tissues, toilet paper, etc.), I can order online for cheaper prices and have it delivered for free from Amazon. Also, I work from home and even if I did go to the office, I can take the subway. It's a lot easier to commute to Manhattan via subway than driving. Ever tried driving to Manhattan? It sucks!
So the only reason for me to own a car would be to drive somewhere outside the city for leisure. And since that's not very often, then it's not worth paying for the cost of a car, car insurance, gas and most importantly, monthly parking fees that my co-op charges if I rented parking space.
Obviously, if I moved out of NYC and to Florida, I would absolutely own a car. There would be more A LOT more use for one there and the cost of owning a car would be far offset by the lower taxes and lower cost of living.
bruh my immigrant ass parents raised my brother and i on 50kish total income. I honestly think the outer boroughs are cheaper than most of low cost of living America. People in the rest of the country think Mcdonalds is considered cheap food whereas here in Brooklyn I used to be able to pick up a box of chicken over rice for 5 bucks or some Chinese bbq pork rice for like 4 dollars. Mcdonalds was considered a treat when I was growing up.
True, although I used to be able to get a two cheeseburgers with fries and a drink at the Prospect Heights McDonald's on Atlantic and Vanderbilt for $4.01 growing up I know the price still as us neighborhood kids would always pay with exact change and were caught off guard when the prices increased one day
But, yes, the 4 chicken wings over fried rice or french fries (I remember that between $3.50 and $4) were staples growing up
i could easily do that if we give up eating , driving and health insurance .
rent and various insurances just about consume that.
i think our medicare , supplement , drug plan and dental for both of us are about 1k a month by themselves .
many of those living on 36k a year or less get other perks or subsidized perks.
with more than 50% of all rentals here stabilized , a senior who’s rent takes up 35% or more of their income qualifies under scrie to never see another rent increase.
one can get a heavily subsidized health insurance plan at 35k through the aca.
so while many do live on 36k in nyc they are either getting perks or living a pretty stressful low end life style sweating every expense.
they would really need to golden girl it
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-19-2023 at 05:05 AM..
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I know the price still as us neighborhood kids would always pay with exact change and were caught off guard when the prices increased one day 
