[thesamethrowawa]

> I know a bunch of Orthodox folks in the US and their idea of a reasonable lifestyle doesn't include two Teslas and three holidays, they do just fine on less than that without a tech cushion.

I'm not talking about Teslas and holidays. Where I am, an equivalent job would really be living on the edges in terms of the basics: rent, groceries, healthcare, energy, saving for retirement.

> It does seem a bit tiring to me whenever seeing articles about people moving out of tech...

It's tiring to me that tech workers really have no idea how well they live compared to people working retail full time - to the extend that it gets romanticised like this. It's incredibly patronising. Which is why I would be interested in a follow up on wether the reality matched the "dream".

[Barrin92]

I used to be a barber before I became a software developer, I figure I earned about as much as someone at a large retailer, this isn't patronizing, I'm speaking from experience. You can actually live a normal life on a regular salary, earning 18-20 bucks an hour in a middle of the pack or slightly below average cost of living state is not some horrific condition. That's just how regular people live.

That said a middle aged guy with college education and 10+ years as an engineering manager I very much suspect is not going to literally stack shelves anyway, and store managers at the big retailers earn a pretty handsome salary. Working what might be the most common, white collar middle class job is not some horror story in the making.