[lhorie]

What's wrong with hyperbole? You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"? Ok, then, but then by that same logic, no one in the Bay area is "scraping by". People are pointing out (validly IMHO) that 2 bed rent + preschool for 2 kids don't leave you a whole lot of disposable income left in the Bay each month if your household income is 200k and you're used to middle class lifestyle anywhere outside of Bay Area (which would be a reasonable expectation, given that that's what the equivalent work experience elsewhere would grant you).

[throwawaymath]

> You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"?

Nope! I'm not saying that. Read my reply to a sibling comment here, I think it largely responds to the point you're making. I'll reiterate again: being unable to afford all the luxuries you'd like is not equivalent to any reasonable definition of "scraping by."

As an aside, I find it funny in a meta sort of way that while we're talking about hyperbole, you interpreted my point to be literally about starving people in Africa.

[lhorie]

Is it that much different though? You're saying "X is not scraping by, look at Z for proof"; I just happened to pick a Z for which your argument becomes weak: I could have picked single moms w/ kids w/ cerebral palsy too, but the point is that we're cherrypicking a sob story that isn't all that relevant to the demographic being discussed. The non-literal interpretation of the OP is more along the lines of what I said earlier: "Bay Area middle class is shittier than middle class elsewhere"