from Hacker News

The Whiners Who Earn $200k and Complain They’re Broke

by welfare on 1/27/21, 2:08 AM with 5 comments

• by uberman on 1/27/21, 3:02 AM

  I understand the intent to give a "hot take" here but it lands tone deaf for me, as least as far as many urban markets are concerned.

  I know first hand what it was like trying to live in SF having worked for a household name tech giant, yet been forced to live in my roommate's dining room.

  The "poverty line" in San Francisco is about $120k. A house in the sunset costs a million three or more and San Francisco does not even make the top 10 list for most expensive cities in the USA.

  If you make $200k a year and live in one of these places, you had better be prepared for the reality that you don't make enough money to qualify for a loan for the shittiest house in town. That makes you effectively poor not rich no matter how extravagant your salary may sound.

  This is not some over stated hyperbole. If you make $200k, there are currently 6 homes in SF that you can afford to purchase (assuming you had the down payment). They come with descriptions like this one:

  "Must purchase sight unseen. Currently occupied by a family member who is not giving access. This is a true contractor special and puts the word fix in fixer."

  https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/62-Carr-St-San-Francisco-...

  When that trash fire is your best bet you're not going to feel like you are "rich".

  By contrast, the poverty line for Huston is $25k and $200K would allow one to live like a king. Here is a house in Huston for the same price as the shithole in SF:

  https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8037-Lenore-St-Houston-TX...

  Without a careful consideration of actual cost of living this article is meaningless click bait.

• by buffaloo on 1/27/21, 3:40 AM

  A lot of people who work to earn $200,000/yr work really, really hard doing things no reasonable person would want to do.

• by chovybizzass on 1/27/21, 2:09 AM

  well to be honest, $200k isn't enough to buy a house in silicon valley. The only friends I know who own around here make $400k/year

• by quantified on 1/27/21, 5:19 AM

  In Silicon Valley. Raised 2 kids, putting them and also wife through college on less than these whining amounts. Nothing about sitting at a computer is even close to actually working (as a lineman, cook, gardener, construction, etc.) My take is that for the people who spend like that, money is easy come easy go. Complaining about how expensive the city is when you don’t need to be there (Caltrain, etc.) is whining. You can spend on all the things to keep up with Joneses but that’s just silly.