[impossiblefork]

It actually is basically minimum wage for major metros.

If I took a job for ~100k in Washington, I'd live worse than I did as a PhD student in Sweden. It would basically suck. I'm not sure ~120k would make things that different.

[nyarlathotep_]

Yep exactly. I mean "maintaining a basic material standard of living that even non 'high-earners' had twenty years ago"

The erosion of the standard of living in the US (and the West more broadly) is not something to be ignored in any discussion of wages.