I agree the housing seems low. For my county, it worked out to ~$750 a month for a single childless household. I’ve never seen a rent that low around me. I assume shared living must be on the table for this.
As for the other living expenses, and whether you’re on a hedonic treadmill:
* How many meals a month are from a restaurant of any kind?
* How many of the following do you have paid subscriptions for? Cable/satellite, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
* Do you set your thermostat to lower than 75°F/23°C in the summer, or higher than 65°F/18°C in the winter?
* Do you buy cars new? Or almost always have a car payment?
* Any microwave meals or individually packaged snacks?
* Alcohol on any semi-regular basis?
* Coffee that’s more than 25¢ a cup?
None of the above are (moral) value judgements, but they’re really easy to get accustomed to and not consider as discretionary items.
> None of the above are (moral) value judgements, but they’re really easy to get accustomed to
Playing economic limbo with constantly updating 'how low can you go?' data as the stick may be possible to get accustomed to, but isn't necessarily very fun. Especially when gameplay becomes long-term and repetitive.
I'm not judging your list of examples in particular, but I think you may be a bit off the mark as to why threads like this appear at all.
Certainly the housing values are far below current costs for California. [1]
I assume this is because the data is averaged over what _current_ residents pay which will be dominated by mortgages taken out well in the past and perhaps affordable rentals not on the market. This will bring the average far down.
Anyone moving to or inside of California today could not survive on the Living Wages listed. Even they assume some 2/3 of post tax income going to that lower averaged housing cost.
I agree the housing seems low. For my county, it worked out to ~$750 a month for a single childless household. I’ve never seen a rent that low around me. I assume shared living must be on the table for this.
As for the other living expenses, and whether you’re on a hedonic treadmill:
* How many meals a month are from a restaurant of any kind?
* How many of the following do you have paid subscriptions for? Cable/satellite, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
* Do you set your thermostat to lower than 75°F/23°C in the summer, or higher than 65°F/18°C in the winter?
* Do you buy cars new? Or almost always have a car payment?
* Any microwave meals or individually packaged snacks?
* Alcohol on any semi-regular basis?
* Coffee that’s more than 25¢ a cup?
None of the above are (moral) value judgements, but they’re really easy to get accustomed to and not consider as discretionary items.