re: #608 Rightwingconspirator

For a single person in Topeka, it’s a fortune. For a 2 child/teen family man single income in a major city like LA or NYC or San Francisco it’s upper middle class living. If he’s careful.

No, I’m sorry, this is not true. I’m a married man living in NYC, in one of the most expensive parts of it. My wife and I combined make about 100K a year. We live very nicely in New York on that amount. If we had two kids— and the attendant tax credits— and another 150K a year, we’d be living even better. There are deductions, you know, for having kids. If you run the income calculator assuming just 10,000 in child related expenses and take deductions for the 2 kids, with no other deductions, you’re keeping 160,000K. That puts you in the top 3% of Americans. If that’s upper middle class, then you’re proving my point— the income disparity in this country is totally out of hand. Even if you hire a full-time nanny and pay $3000 a month for an apartment, you have $84,000 a year left over after that. That’s still more than double the median income in NYC.

250K is a big amount, no matter where you are. Not to mention that living in Manhattan is a huge privilege and it’s something that you’re paying for for that cost of living. Likewise in San Francisco. It’s not just a cost. You get something for that.