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One must include Long Island as part of the most elite area when speaking of the NYC metro area. The wealthiest town in America (Brookville) is on Long Island. 9 out of the top 25 richest towns in America are located on Long island. They don't call that area the Gold Coast for nothing.
Interesting. There seems to be differing info available regarding which are truly the 25 richest towns in the US. The list I have has Hillsborough, CA at number 1 in the US and Scarsdale, NY as NY's wealthiest at number 2. There were 6 on that list in the Bay Area, with only 3 on that list in NY, none of which were on LI and Brookville wasn't even included in this top 25. I wonder what the reality is.
It looks like the one that matches your claim is the most recent, so possibly now what you stated is the reality, but I'm not sure which if any of these would be the most accurate source, and the drastic change in these lists seems very questionable. Just found it interesting.
One must include Long Island as part of the most elite area when speaking of the NYC metro area. The wealthiest town in America (Brookville) is on Long Island. 9 out of the top 25 richest towns in America are located on Long island. They don't call that area the Gold Coast for nothing.
Actually the Bay Area compares favorably to the NY Metro as far as income goes...
Households Earning $100,000+
Fairfield County, CT 39.3%
New York-Northern NJ-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 28.8%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 35.0%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 41.1%
Households Earning $200,000+
Fairfield County, CT 15.2%
New York-Northern NJ-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 7.5%
San Francisco-Oakalnd-Fremont, CA 9.6%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 11.7%
Median Family Income
Fairfield County, CT $96,279
New York-Northern NJ-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA $73,088
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA $86,560
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $95,980
1. Lose the 'entitlement mentality': you are not entitled to own a home in any locale (hometown or otherwise; gentrified neighborhood, gated, or blighted) unless you can earn a salary commensurate with the sum of monies needed to secure a mortgage in your chosen neighborhood. Simple as that. If you're boxed out of NJ or the Northeast, relocate. It's the law of the jungle here in the U.S., contrary to what the socialist/ egalitarian-idealists tell you on your groove tube.
2. The reason Manhattan "holes in the wall" demand such lofty rents as $1600/mo. is precisely because the city is -- you said it yourself -- "very nice." They don't call it the "Big Apple" for nothing. NYC and its surrounding bedroom communities (and self-sufficient fifedoms): the creme de la creme. You reaped the benefits of being raised in such a fertile setting; but now you must learn to swim or (as you might say) risk drowning if you so choose to plant adult roots there. To rent... for life... Oh horror of horrors! -- GASP!! --
I would submit that this is your greatest flaw: that renting is somehow a drowning, a life not worth living. Working people, artists, and educators have been doing it for years, especially in prime locations such as New York and Los Angeles.
All of the aforementioned points in this section (#2) are seemingly self-evident notions that often get lost in the droning moan of the LA/SF/Boston/NYC-is-so-expensive whiners running amuk in City-Data.
3. Learn a college-level or better command of the English Language and you'll better be prepared to fill the job opportunities and wages you so covet: do so and you may indeed secure the privilege to purchase private property and thus break the woeful (GASP!) rent cycle.
It's called The American Dream, realized by good ole Protestant Work Ethic (infused with Enlightenment and diligence to Adam Smith principles). Rise to the level of competitiveness in the economy at-large, and you manifest your financial destiny; otherwise, shut up and take the scraps tossed your way. Live in the rented cottages and flats that some kind soul is willing to lease you or move!
Incorrectly spelling 'Manhattan' (as you did twice) and your abysmal display of syntax are just a couple of ghastly evidences I am seeing that speak volumes to your lack of a competitive education and your lack of essential communication skills.
Now I realize we live in a dumbed-down America -- a nation practically bereft of its roots in classical education, eloquence, and refinement, both within its presumably enlightened urban centers and out in the historically undereducated hinterlands. But, we're still a country that values basic communication skills (minimally) in nearly all professional-grade careers. And a 'professional' of some type you MUST become, as an urban dweller particularly, if you aspire to home ownership, especially in the high cost-of-living areas. Or, you must wield a deft hand in things such as craftsmanship, construction, sales, thievery, snake oil, pyramid schemes, and American Idol contests to name a few alternatives (of varying towardness).
Ivy League educations produce highly-skilled and high-performing (and ruthless) professionals who have their pick of the litter for jobs, homes, and lifestyles... Wowza! -- Ever wonder *why* these individuals worked so hard to gain admittance to Princeton, Columbia, Yale? Busted their nuts in order to run the difficult gauntlet of coursework? Did whatever it took to secure the funds, loans, and scholarships to finance all of this? Work like dogs at the jobs they do have in order to stay the Lead Dogs? Then again, you probably mocked them in high school: the pocket protectors, the cardigan sweaters, their punctilious attention to academic detail...
I find it tragic that you guffaw at the Ivy Leaguers, the aristocrats, and the over-achievers of the world as if they were somehow the 'top-tier of the top-tier', and that the all-encompassing top-tier at-large -- of which you, as working man and job-holder, ought to be an equal member as they -- should all be treated equally and heaped with the lavish luxuries of life like palacial homes in primo burbs-on-a-hill and a rent-free existence from age 23 onward.
You've got it all wrong!
The Ivies and the Trust Funders are the 'top-tier' -- the only top-tier in the U.S, in fact. Always have been, and will be until long after we pass. The only hope you have is to gain the skills, learned-intelligence, and clout necessary to thrust your little old self into the mix as a professional of some type and to feed off of the likes of them. (Better start retracting the put-downs you levied on Mr. Sweater Vest back in the day.)
And if you should do so expediently, you will be compensated to the tune of a few hundred thousand a year, which will punch your ticket to home ownership in NJ, NY, almost anywhere. The Lap of Luxury shall be yours...
OR, you'll end up like most Americans when you finally realize your long-aspired-for position of status and wealth -- your white-washed white picket fence home, your swift ascent through the social ranks... You'll take a weary look around: IS THIS IT???!
You'll bemoan your not being admitted to Tweed Tree Country Club or selected to your local charity's (read: money-washing cabal) Board of Directors. You'll sell your home in Penultimatetown, U.S.A. and buy the most decrepit Brownstone on the shadiest block of the lousiest street on the wrong side of the Upper West Side, Manhattan, or an entry-level place on the margins of Scarsdale -- all because you must always have what is just beyond your grasp. Middle class wouldn't be enough for you; you must exude power, status, the finest in Brooks Brothers foppish duds, rare miniature English sportscars for carousing, a cabin upstate for duck hunting...!
Nothing's ever enough for Americans: the poor want to be middle class; rank and file middle classers want to be Country Clubbers; Leisurely Larry wants to be a portfolio-wielding Donald Trump; Trump wants to be a god; and then the real GOD shows up and levels the great humility: that all are mere, pathetic mortals -- American materialists and social-climbers: among the worst kind!
4. Lastly, you bemoaned and questioned the prospects for your very "survival" at the outset of your puerile hissy fit. You WILL survive living in an apartment, driving a Prius, eating microwave dinners, wearing Levi's off-the-rack, drinking Coors Light, and going to every third Giants home game with your Carhartt-wearing buds; and, your wife WILL work -- I promise! It's called the 'working class': it comprises the VAST majority of citizens in this country. Again, your idealized notions that the U.S. is somehow devoid of a caste system is your problem. The likes of you ought to be glad -- indeed, ecstatic -- that the exponents of the American virtues of 'liberty and equality for all' have amazingly conspired over the course of recent history to raise up the hoi polloi; in centuries past, the Great Unwashed were begging for scraps, often enslaved, did not maintain the right to vote, and were basically pi--ed upon by the landholding elites. They had no "opportunities" other than to plow tracts of land for their keepers, to carry water for their merciful overlords. They were laughingstocks. Relatively speaking, the working classes of today don't hit the lick of a snake when compared to the serfs of yesteryear.
We've come a long way, baby. Recent progress has, for the most part, been extremely kind to the common folk. Be glad for what you do have! Be thankful to the noblesse oblige -- the enlightened worldviews and generosity of the your forefathers' employers!
One of these days the worm will inevitably turn (though it will not happen during our existence, but might affect your grandchildren) and what Alexis de Tocqueville dubbed the "crass, middling, mediocre masses" will once again play subject to iron-fisted masters. It's the natural way of the world: for power to normally accumulate in the hands of a few at the expense of the many; and for the few to dominate the throngs and subordinate to their selfish whimsies -- that's not me talking; it's Plato. The Republic. These are not 'normal' times.
I somehow stumbled onto this very old thread, but I felt the need to comment on the above post regardless of its age.
A very accurate portrayal of the competitive environment of any non-socialist country. The poster admires the 'elite's' status, and sees it as well deserved, but sees social climbing instinct as a flaw in character of the average American. I disagree with the former, and agree with the latter.
The 'value' created by the fraud based economy, which exists at the very top where the elites that he admires operate, is not evidence of just value created for society which would justify their wealth and power. An elite class who largely creates and maintains their wealth through a kleptocracy and plutarchy isn't something to revere as being 'deserved'.
Insofar as an Ivy education being the ticket, it is, but most of those kids come from a background that allowed them to achieve entrance into those schools. Attendance at an Ivy isn't quite as 'bootstrapped' as the poster would lead you to believe, in most cases. And I went to a private school where half of my class went Ivy. I know what I'm talking about. Many kids who don't go Ivy, would have if their families had better set them up to succeed in doing so. However, the poster blames them for not making the required sacrifice. And yes, I know that many middle/lower class kids do go Ivy, but they are the tip of the iceberg of kids who otherwise have the innate ability but don't aren't given the tools to allow them to succeed in going that route.
Its funny that he/she views the dissolution of the middle class, and the return of a true serf class as being the only future alternative to upper class, as being an inevitable and natural shift in a capitalist economy (true). But at the same time, puts the ethical burden on the working man for not working hard enough to fight this natural shift and to keep a decent quality of life. In my opinion, thats like blaming the sand-crab for allowing high tide to come in.
The poster has a very clear view of the way the world works, which is good. But he also has an unnatural admiration for the people who dishonestly (outside the rule of law, or otherwise through unfair influence on the rule of law) keep the lower classes subjugated. It reminds me a bit of Stockholm Syndrome.
I've lived in both NYC (Manhattan) and SF (SF city) and SF is expensive but not as expensive as NYC. Some people like to say it's the same, but my own experience of renting and buying real estate in both places is that you get more for your money here in SF: more square footage, newer, and in a better neighborhood. I am not sure how they compare when looking at the surrounding suburban areas but my bet is they follow the same general pattern as seen in the cities.
Yes like the above poster mentioned, NYC is more expensive, a lot more in my opinion if you're speaking Manhattan. 400 Square feet can cost you 600K and up in some places.
I somehow stumbled onto this very old thread, but I felt the need to comment on the above post regardless of its age.
A very accurate portrayal of the competitive environment of any non-socialist country. The poster admires the 'elite's' status, and sees it as well deserved, but sees social climbing instinct as a flaw in character of the average American. I disagree with the former, and agree with the latter.
The 'value' created by the fraud based economy, which exists at the very top where the elites that he admires operate, is not evidence of just value created for society which would justify their wealth and power. An elite class who largely creates and maintains their wealth through a kleptocracy and plutarchy isn't something to revere as being 'deserved'.
Insofar as an Ivy education being the ticket, it is, but most of those kids come from a background that allowed them to achieve entrance into those schools. Attendance at an Ivy isn't quite as 'bootstrapped' as the poster would lead you to believe, in most cases. And I went to a private school where half of my class went Ivy. I know what I'm talking about. Many kids who don't go Ivy, would have if their families had better set them up to succeed in doing so. However, the poster blames them for not making the required sacrifice. And yes, I know that many middle/lower class kids do go Ivy, but they are the tip of the iceberg of kids who otherwise have the innate ability but don't aren't given the tools to allow them to succeed in going that route.
Its funny that he/she views the dissolution of the middle class, and the return of a true serf class as being the only future alternative to upper class, as being an inevitable and natural shift in a capitalist economy (true). But at the same time, puts the ethical burden on the working man for not working hard enough to fight this natural shift and to keep a decent quality of life. In my opinion, thats like blaming the sand-crab for allowing high tide to come in.
The poster has a very clear view of the way the world works, which is good. But he also has an unnatural admiration for the people who dishonestly (outside the rule of law, or otherwise through unfair influence on the rule of law) keep the lower classes subjugated. It reminds me a bit of Stockholm Syndrome.
This is one of the smartest things I have ever read on city data!
I just have to add...even though this is an old thread and it matters not...that I find it rather striking that someone so obviously elitist can be so anti-entitlement. Yuck.
Huh? Some people work very hard their whole lives to become the "elite". That's why they disdain people who feel they are also entitled to become the "elite" without ever working hard for it. Makes absolute sense that these "elitists" would be anti-entitlement.
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