Quote (excellence @ Oct 8 2021 01:36am)
yeah it really is unique to the US being so large and different across states. Sure you have London vs Birmingham or Berlin vs Dresden or whatever. But it is very extreme in the US.
where I primarily live the median US salary makes you poor as a single person unless you have 2 roommates in a tiny apartment (flat) sharing 1-2 bathroom(s) . where my secondary location is the median would be quite comfortable even with a small family in a townhouse.
what will be interesting is how remote working changes prices and income levels in the next 5 years. if i were so inclined i’d be tempted to move to some small town in south dakota or nebraska or some small beach town in new hampshire and pay next to nothing in rent for a 2 bedroom 2 bath, and sock away my income due to working remote fully now.
do it
get away from the big cities, especially the blue ones
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Oct 8 2021 01:57am)
The proper comparison for the U.S. in terms of population as well as geographic and economic diversity is Europe in its entirety, not a single European country. And in that case, the variation in cost of living is even more extreme in Europe. A single year of rent for an apartment in inner London or the good districts of Paris buys you the same apartment in Plovdiv, Bulgaria or similar places.
Heck, Germany's current economic model relies in no small part on exploiting droves of Eastern European workers with starvation wages which only add up for them because the rest of their family lives in Poland/Romania/Bulgaria.
germany in general is a low wage exploitation country, it goes up all the way to doctors and engineers