True. I’m stuck for now in the Bay Area and $100k makes you not very rich here (a shitty one bedroom runs $2k a month, daycare for an infant around $2.7k - it is sheer insanity around here). Most other places are rather great at the same income level.
More than half the population resides in major cities. I guess my point is that the elites (the ones who control things) piss away more than $100K in a month. 99% of the people don't make $700K, and speaking as someone n the top 1%, I assure you, I don't control anything. It's the people in the top 1% of my class that do.
I don’t wish to assert that social mobility is not possible here. However, the opening paragraph asserts that our society is not run by a little group of elites. It is. The people who run this country are the people who can spend the median income on a night out and not notice.
our society is not run by the rich 1% or even the top 10% of that 1%.
the power is not concentrated in the wealthy. it's concentrated in the politically connected. we've developed a serious oligarch class that's getting goodies the rest of us are not.
and i know enough of them to see the difference.
the endless claims that the middle class is dying and the "1%" need to "pay more" are just part of the canon they use to hide where the real privilege is.
spend some time with the politicians and media barons and it gets awfully glaring.
the people who run the country are not the guys dropping $20k a nite on hotel rooms and 3k on bottles on st barths. they're the ones in cheap suits in the corridors of the capitol aspiring to be the next big gun committee head or climbing the greasy pole at bureaucracies.
you think mark cuban has more power than tony fauci or some no one like walensky these days?
because it doesn't look like it.
wanna see most billionaires wet their pants? send the justice department. (musk is, admittedly, an outlier, (at least to the US govt) but look how fast zuck backed off politics and learned to get back in line and play ball.)
being rich ain't enough.
as government gets more powerful, privilege accrues to those in its orbit and being merely wealthy gets you less and less.
Amazingly to me, the large social-justice driven class is simultaneously envious and personally ambitious, yet seem to serve as foot soldiers for the war on stability and agency. Comfortable yet want and claim victim status.
us personal median income is $36k
it's about 67k for a median family.
100K is a high income almost anyplace outside a major city.
True. I’m stuck for now in the Bay Area and $100k makes you not very rich here (a shitty one bedroom runs $2k a month, daycare for an infant around $2.7k - it is sheer insanity around here). Most other places are rather great at the same income level.
Valid point. I live in relatively rural NC. Our 5 bed/3 bath house on 1.5 acres is < $1k/mo. A $100k salary means living like a king!
Move. Solved.
You can’t move when you have joint custody. You’d have to abandon your kids. Not an option.
More than half the population resides in major cities. I guess my point is that the elites (the ones who control things) piss away more than $100K in a month. 99% of the people don't make $700K, and speaking as someone n the top 1%, I assure you, I don't control anything. It's the people in the top 1% of my class that do.
and most major cities are quite affordable on 100k.
houton, dallas, chicago, phoenix, philly, san antonio, much of LA, even parts of NYC.
you're looking only at the most wildly ovprices and assuming it's typical.
500k is a crazily high figure to use to track social mobility.
that's 99th percentile. (top 1%) (531k is top 1%)
https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percentiles/
I don’t wish to assert that social mobility is not possible here. However, the opening paragraph asserts that our society is not run by a little group of elites. It is. The people who run this country are the people who can spend the median income on a night out and not notice.
our society is not run by the rich 1% or even the top 10% of that 1%.
the power is not concentrated in the wealthy. it's concentrated in the politically connected. we've developed a serious oligarch class that's getting goodies the rest of us are not.
and i know enough of them to see the difference.
the endless claims that the middle class is dying and the "1%" need to "pay more" are just part of the canon they use to hide where the real privilege is.
spend some time with the politicians and media barons and it gets awfully glaring.
the people who run the country are not the guys dropping $20k a nite on hotel rooms and 3k on bottles on st barths. they're the ones in cheap suits in the corridors of the capitol aspiring to be the next big gun committee head or climbing the greasy pole at bureaucracies.
you think mark cuban has more power than tony fauci or some no one like walensky these days?
because it doesn't look like it.
wanna see most billionaires wet their pants? send the justice department. (musk is, admittedly, an outlier, (at least to the US govt) but look how fast zuck backed off politics and learned to get back in line and play ball.)
being rich ain't enough.
as government gets more powerful, privilege accrues to those in its orbit and being merely wealthy gets you less and less.
Amazingly to me, the large social-justice driven class is simultaneously envious and personally ambitious, yet seem to serve as foot soldiers for the war on stability and agency. Comfortable yet want and claim victim status.
That’s so unfair. I’m barely struggling along on a million a year.