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Living on $100k a Year

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Re: Living on $100k a Year

#121

Post by abalashov »

scarface74 wrote: post #118
killercup wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's something I always forget about when talking to people from the US: I don't have any student loans. A semester at a university in Germany costs around 250€ (plus housing and food), so it's hard to get to a point where you need 10 years to pack back loans. I had a part time job all through university and even saved up a reasonable amount of money.

There is really no reason for an American to have a unaffordable student loan. They could easily go to a state school instead of a private college and save thousands.

I don't know that it's quite that simple; for one, tuition dominates college cost discussions while actual costs consist in large part of living expenses, i.e. room, board, food, misc. Second, there are some impressively expensive state schools out there, and not all have especially affordable in-state tuition, particularly not to those of working class background.

Still, I agree with the general idea you're reaching for. The ostensible premium of elite private schools isn't worth going into crippling debt for in most cases I can envisage.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#122

Post by scarface74 »

notyourday wrote: post #52
d4mi3n wrote: post #3

> "And now I'm one of those coastal elites, a term, you know, that people in Middle America use. And it feels like betrayal," he says. "But what I've learned in moving to the coast is there's real inequality. And the biggest driver of that inequality is the tax code. The biggest social welfare has been to the rich and powerful, giving them loopholes and abilities to keep money from the government and keep money from…

> A take-away I had from Trump's election was that there still is a lot of economic struggle in the interior of the US. Nobody seems to be interested in improving the situation, and very few of these communities have the means and/or the willingness to move towards greener pastures. Is there anything that can be done to improve the situation? I work in a typical liberal as hell company in a very expensive city. The l…

I didn't realize how outright prejudice I was when it came to the stereotypical Trump true believer until after this election. It just never crossed my mind. I'm African American grew up middle class but I saw and interacted with plenty of poorer minorities but never poorer Whites - I went to a predominantly white private school, but by definition if they were at private school, they weren't poor.

Went into tech and only interacted with other white collar workers.

Of course I don't agree with Trumps demonization of "other" but I do see how he easily tapped into their resentment. People don't seem to realize how many Trump voters in middle America voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#123

Post by scarface74 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #88
pjc50 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What evidence is there that protectionism and further raising of the immigration barrier would actually solve any of these problems?

Yes. The immigration barrier is simply supply and demand. Just as the H1Bs have been used to keep the wages of the American middle class down, so has the open floodgates of illegal immigration kept the wages of poor Americans down. With regards to protectionism I don't know what more evidence you could need aside from the changes to the US economy brought on by NAFTA, which were all predicted. It's been fine for the…

There are only 85000 H1B Visas allowed each year. There are about 3.5 to 4 million developers in the US. If all of the H1B Visas allowed in the country were developers, it really couldn't depress wages that much.

As far as reigning in illegal immigration, there have been reports all across the country that farmers are losing money because they can't find enough people at any price who are willing to do farm work since the crackdown.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#124

Post by notyourday »

pjc50 wrote: post #114
notyourday wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to presume that your family has a combined income of 100k or more. Lets engage in a very simple intellectual exercise: remove all immigration restrictions and all protections that we have. Do you believe that a) your family in a short term would be better off/not different/the worse off? b) your family in a long term would be better off/not different worse off?

Well, the first is false and the idea of removing all restrictions was not under suggestion, so I don't see how this is relevant?

Ok, so we agree that some restrictions on immigration must exist?

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#125

Post by rhino369 »

notyourday wrote: post #52
d4mi3n wrote: post #3

> "And now I'm one of those coastal elites, a term, you know, that people in Middle America use. And it feels like betrayal," he says. "But what I've learned in moving to the coast is there's real inequality. And the biggest driver of that inequality is the tax code. The biggest social welfare has been to the rich and powerful, giving them loopholes and abilities to keep money from the government and keep money from…

> A take-away I had from Trump's election was that there still is a lot of economic struggle in the interior of the US. Nobody seems to be interested in improving the situation, and very few of these communities have the means and/or the willingness to move towards greener pastures. Is there anything that can be done to improve the situation? I work in a typical liberal as hell company in a very expensive city. The l…

I hear the same things in DC. Even (maybe especially) from people who work in government.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#126

Post by scarface74 »

abalashov wrote: post #121
scarface74 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is really no reason for an American to have a unaffordable student loan. They could easily go to a state school instead of a private college and save thousands.

I don't know that it's quite that simple; for one, tuition dominates college cost discussions while actual costs consist in large part of living expenses, i.e. room, board, food, misc. Second, there are some impressively expensive state schools out there, and not all have especially affordable in-state tuition, particularly not to those of working class background. Still, I agree with the general idea you're reaching…

How many college students have to stay on campus? How many could go to two year college, stay at home and then transfer two years later?

I went to a small state college with a horrible computer science department. Four years out of college I was making just as much as people who had way more debt than I had (I.e. none)

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#127

Post by scarface74 »

abalashov wrote: post #119
scarface74 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you live in northeast GA (as do I) you know that a software developer with 5-10 years of experience can easily make $110-140K and that easily affords you to live in some of the nicest part of Atlanta. True. We aren't around "900 of the world's top 1000" companies, but in the 20 years I've lived here, I've never found there to be a lack of development jobs. As a single person, you could easily live comfortably…

My impression of the top end of typical developer salaries in Atlanta doesn't quite go that high, but it's possible they're crept up since I last took a look. I agree that metro Atlanta is not an especially high-cost area, though parts of it certainly are; ITP in general is getting overheated. I lived in Midtown for the better part of ten years and by the end of that, rents seemed on par with Brooklyn and Chicago, th…

Forsyth County. I've lived in Marietta,Decatur, And Johns Creek before. And yes the salaries are accurate. This is from both my own experience as both a job seeker and a hiring manager (not really a "manager" more like a team lead who has hired contractors)

Salary.com is seems pretty much in line with my experience.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#128

Post by nunez »

We live in Dallas on about $185k/year cumulative. Despite $1200/mo in rent, >$1500/mo student loan repayments, $500/mo car payments and $1350/mo credit card debt (i’m aware of how dumb that was), we are living comfortably. My plan is to earn a $200k/year income in less than four years so that my fiancee can go back to school without sacrificng our current lifestyle.

However, we live in an apartment and don’t have kids.

There is absolutely no way we could do kids and a mortgage with this debt burden without life going to hell. Once that debt goes away, though? Not a problem at all...for one kid and a cheap house. ($250k house, which is what we wanted anyway, as we aren’t fans of big houses)

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#129

Post by nunez »

scarface74 wrote: post #117
abalashov wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And arguably wouldn't make financial sense. There's a benefit to being within driving distance of 900 of the world's top 1000 tech companies, or whatever it is. You might be able to afford a better lifestyle on a modest paycheck in Sioux City, Iowa, but what happens when that company, the approximately ~1 serious tech employer in town, lays you off? In the Bay Area, you just go across the street. Lest anyone think I'…

Well if you live in northeast GA (as do I) you know that a software developer with 5-10 years of experience can easily make $110-140K and that easily affords you to live in some of the nicest part of Atlanta. True. We aren't around "900 of the world's top 1000" companies, but in the 20 years I've lived here, I've never found there to be a lack of development jobs. As a single person, you could easily live comfortably…

Not everyone wants to work for a huge corporation, where most of those jobs with the salaries that you cite are located.

Re: Living on $100k a Year

#130

Post by jorblumesea »

harryh wrote: post #110
jorblumesea wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The federal tax code is a highly unequal affair, and due to a system of complicated loopholes and itemized deductions, the wealthiest among us get the lions share of spending and deductions. While I agree that raising taxes by 500% on the rich is an absurd idea, it's really not asking much for the wealthy to pay their fair share. These deductions and "welfare for the rich" basically amount to hundreds of billions in…

> If you're in the top 0.1%, the actual taxes you pay each year is a far lower percentage than the middle class would pay, due to this unequal system. This is false. Paid tax rates rise progressively with income in the US. https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-... The NYTimes article that you link to doesn't really discuss tax benefits that are valuable to the top 0.1% so much as those that are…

Paid tax rates rise, but the higher income classes don't make much of their money based on income tax. That's why it's unequal, their method of earning money is substantially different from the average person, and taxed differently.
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