this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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We already live in a dystopia.
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This is simplistic to the point of being misleading.
First, your income alone doesn't matter. What matters is income relative to the cost of living in your particular location. You can try to estimate "real" income at the state level, though even within each state there can be significant variation by region.
Second, how do you define "comfortable?"
they define it in the paper, its not having to use more than 50% of your income for housing.
Right? I'm close to half that for a household income and we take multiple vacations every year, everyone is well fed and happy, and we can afford birthday/Xmas presents for the kids and all nibblings.
Plus we're putting away a grand or two per month.
Agree, it's wildly simplistic. The variation in the cost of living is huge, even within pretty much extra state. In Modoc county, California, the median home price is $230k. I'm Santa Clara county it's $1.5m. Taking an average across the country is useless unless you just want to show very gross change from one year to another, and even that might mask changes in different directions in different areas.