Bevy

It's not just housing costs and affordable housing availability which are astronomical and non-existent respectively. Most of the industrialized world have socialized healthcare but the US does not.

In the US you'll pay for health insurance and still have hundreds and hundreds of dollars to pay out-of-pocket for even a simple checkup beyond a yearly physical, which is to say nothing of drug prices.

Not to say things aren't expensive elsewhere but the health insurance thing is the kicker in the US. You could be making 150k, be paying for insurance and still be beyond fucked by a major health-event.

That said 150k is a big salary here too, like top 10% of the population. You basically only see this kind of salary inflation in tech jobs.

They are insane everywhere. 100m² house without a back nor frontyard sets you back 400k€ in my area if it's somewhat decent and doesn't need repairs or you want to pay out of your ass in winter (maybe climate change will help with that). Prices only get worse closer to the city center.

I talked about this to multiple parents who bought their houses between 1990 and 2015 and paid 50-150k for houses of around that size but with back and front yards in good, quiet neighborhoods. Their houses are now 600-800k€. My salary is nowhere near that enough to pay that off in 10 years like they did. Some haven't even paid it off now just to get the tax incentives for paying a mortgage.

We should all be earning way more, but to think that somebody working at a non-profit is getting 2-3 times my salary is crazy. Makes me want to donate much less (or not at all) to US non-profits.

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