Exactly, with this topic it's impossible to have a calibrated discussion because everyone has a different baseline.
Agree that "you need a lot more money" feels directionally correct, but at the same time complaining about $350k is dumb. At that level of income it's entirely down to your lifestyle choices.
A lot of things people spending money on feels like status signalling. "I make $x, therefore I need to look like I made $x". Cars, private school, massive house, yearly international vacations, etc all feel over the top to me. If you want to have it all, yes it costs a shit ton.
If the income is contingent on showing up to work in a high-cost region, I don't think we can explain away the payment/interest/taxes/insurance on a modest, reasonably located home in that region as "lifestyle choice."
I never said 350k was low, I said it was very comfortable for someone without a family and doable for a comfortable middle-class life with raising a family and retiring.
The fucking economist hit piece said that 350k was "lavishly" high for an absurdly educated and highly socially useful professional because it's connected to a bunch of think tanks that are part of a concerted and coordinated effort funded by Bond Villains to organize society around one goal and one goal only: to drive wealth inequality arbitrarily high as fast as possible no matter if all of mankind has to strain every sinew and destroy the planet to do so.
No cost is too high to have people flying around daily in custom Gulfstream jets carrying a single passenger.
Pretty much any political entity focused on reducing inequality or promoting egalitarianism has the outsized compensation of professionals like doctors and software engineers as its primary target.
Agree that "you need a lot more money" feels directionally correct, but at the same time complaining about $350k is dumb. At that level of income it's entirely down to your lifestyle choices.
A lot of things people spending money on feels like status signalling. "I make $x, therefore I need to look like I made $x". Cars, private school, massive house, yearly international vacations, etc all feel over the top to me. If you want to have it all, yes it costs a shit ton.