I Have A Full-Time Job!

Yeah, I think so too. But it's happening regardless. My state has the min wage at $12, and it's going up to $13 on January 1st, $14 in 2023, and $15 in 2024. $15 is still a pretty bad wage where I'm at, but you could live pretty good off of it in huge parts of Appalachia and the midwest and the deep south. I don't think a federal nationwide $15 an hour is going to work at all.

I understand the need, but it will only hurt small businesses, drive inflation, and cut hours of operation.

Newton was wiser than anyone knew. His law about one action always having an equal reaction in the opposite direction seems to apply to far more than gravity.

If companies can't afford the extra money employees will be laid off and others will get paid cash in hand to avoid taxes which isn't good for the employee in the long run either. That extra money has to come from somewhere if companies don't have it.

The cost of living between states in the US must be huge, I'm thinking of someone who lives in Manhattan, New York to someone who lives on a farm in Kansas for example.

Yeah, they are basically separate countries. Midtown Manhattan is another level, but to give you a general idea:

Rent in New Brunswick, New Jersey, about an hour commute to both Midtown Manhattan and downtown Philadelphia, is about $2000 per month for a one bedroom studio. The monthly pass to use rail transit is about $360.

On the other hand, rent in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, the capital of one of the poorer states, runs about $850 for a TWO bedroom apartment.

Owning a house is really similar with the cost disparity. My parents live in southern New Jersey in a rural area about 45 minutes from Philadelphia. Their house is worth approximately $300k and property taxes are about $9000 per year. A very similar house in aforementioned Charleston is on the market for $170k. And that's with this insane housing market. In November 2019 this house was worth an estimated $140k. Property taxes are an estimated $900 a YEAR!

This is why there is so much arguing about implementing things on a federal level. $15 an hour in northern New Jersey or an NYC suburb would have you either living in squalor, really struggling, or having multiple roommates. Let alone in NYC itself. $15 an hour in West Virginia buys you a house with a few years of saving.

The pandemic has changed this dynamic very slightly as wealthy tech workers have started moving out of the elite coastal cities and into the midwest and south as remote work has taken hold. But really all I'm seeing is that prices everywhere are going up.

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on Nov 20th 2021 »

You have a point there, basically what I did 17 years ago, moved away from the hussle and bussle of commuting to central London each day to a quiet town on the coast just outside of Barcelona because I could work from home on the internet. I think you will find more people doing something similar now to get a better lifestyle if they can work from home.

I think a lot of people are going to be doing the same thing. I worked in an office in college for 2 years and then for 2 years when I got done college but the couple years since then I've been work from home. Sometimes I miss the office dynamic and having "work friends" but if given the choice I don't think I'd ever want to permanently work from an office ever again. I'm in a spot right now where I'd like to move somewhere a bit more lively and walkable but don't really make enough money for that to be feasible.

2G for a studio? Man, that crazy.

My parents have a five bedroom home in Iowa with a mortgage for less, and that includes taxes and insurances.

Yeah. Jersey is nuts. You can find studios in less desirable suburbs for about $1600. I've got a friend living in a crappy neighborhood in uptown Manhattan in a tiny 2 bedroom with 2 roommates and she's paying $1300 and doesn't even have her own room, and they had a roach problem. Where I'm at a 2 bedroom apartment is about $1200, but there is literally no reason to live here. So I guess cheaper rent can be found but there are tradeoffs.

My buddy bought a house right nearby about 2 years ago, just before the housing market exploded. He paid 175k and now Zillow says his house is worth 240k. He's only paying about $1400 for his mortgage with the taxes rolled in, so I guess he got a pretty good deal. It's a pretty cramped 3 bed/2 bath rancher but he's a bachelor so it's fine for him. Houses around me are pretty regularly getting sold for 10% above asking price with huge cash offers. It is absolutely insane right now.

I didn't realise the cost of living is so expensive in the US. You can rent a four bedroom flat next to the beach with sea views in Barcelona for 900 euros a month.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Nov 21st 2021 »

Yeah. I don't know if there's anywhere in the US you're getting a place like that. Maaaaaybe you could find a lakefront property in a flyover state for the equivalent dollar amount. It is all relative to an extent. Median income in the US is quite a bit higher than in Spain. I'm not sure it's high enough to offset the higher cost of living entirely though.

Yeah. Only cheap beach/lake properties have to be in certain coastal states like Bama. lol

I always thought it was cheap to live in Florida, that's were the Brits all seem to go to retire.

Parts of Florida can be cheap, sure. You have to deal with the heat and humidity and weather, and the people. According to some cost of living metric Florida is 1% more expensive than average to live in. Generally speaking the northeast and the west coast are crazy expensive and the south, midwest, and great plains regions are quite a bit cheaper. Florida is kinda unique in the south because a ton of wealthy people from the northeast retire there and bring their wealth and drive up the costs. Nobody is retiring to Mississippi or Kansas. A lot of people don't really consider Florida part of "the South" as a region. It's quite a bit different culturally and economically than Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana.

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on Nov 21st 2021 »

Not sure I'd want to live near a lake in Miami or New Orleans, I see YouTube videos of alligators suddenly appearing in back gardens and swimming pools. The only thing I have to worry about in Spain are mosquitoes. I also see videos of huge bears appearing at family BBQs and terrorizing everyone. Is that sort of thing a regular occurrence in the US?

Lol. We've got mosquitos here too, trust me. I wouldn't say that bear sightings are really common here. In my area I've only heard reports of 2 black bears in the past 10 years or so, one just last week. But there are no photos and the person that reported it is older so I think it was just a big coyote or something.

In some areas like the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee bears are much more common but it's only something you've gotta watch out for if you're camping or hiking. A lot of states have organized hunting campaigns for wolves and bears and the such to keep the populations down. The most dangerous thing I see around here is the odd deer in rut. It's such a big country with so much open space though so I'm sure some of the bigger states have more.

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on Nov 22nd 2021 »

Florida is quite a unique market. Some areas are reasonable, so are way absorbent. But I think that is common in most states.

However, even if cost of living is on the cheaper side, other areas might not be. Housing is not too bad where I live, but property tax and groceries are crazy.

I hear Florida is a bit dangerous for tourists. They arrive at the airport, pickup their marked hire care which stands out like a sore thumb on the highway and literally puts a target on their back telling criminals that they are tourists and easy pickings to be robbed.

Nah. Florida has so much tourism coming in with Disney and Universal I don't think there's an issue. Europeans on the internet tend to vastly overestimate the danger of American cities. As long as you don't go to certain obvious run-down neighborhoods in urban areas, which no tourist will ever go to, you'll be 100% fine.

I?ve been to the US three times and never had any issues. New York felt really safe, seemed like it was geared up for tourism. I went in 2001 just before the terrorist attack of 9/11. Back then you could climb the stairs inside the Statue of Liberty and look over Staten Island through her crown. I went to Las Vegas and loved it there, so much so that I got married at the Luxor Chapel there. Another time I went to Los Angeles and to tell the truth I was a bit disappointed, It just wasn?t like the movies, Santa Monica wasn?t anything special. The only time I felt a bit weary was when I ventured into East L.A. near the Dodger stadium.

NYC is much improved since then. They've really cleaned up the city. I don't have any experience with the west cost but my brother's been to Vegas twice and enjoyed it for what it was. To my knowledge LA is more like a huge group of city all jumbled together than one distinct city. Everything I've heard of it just seems like endless urban sprawl and traffic.