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One thing that seems strange to me is that the cost of living is high, but so many things we buy are priced the same. No matter how high cost of living is, a Ma

One thing that seems strange to me is that the cost of living is high, but so many things we buy are priced the same. No matter how high cost of living is, a MacBook Pro starts at the same price whether you’re making a measly 100k in the Bay or 25k in Podunk, Alabama. Out of state college tuition is the same price no matter which state you come from. Even if you have “low income” locally, there’s still so much more opportunity to be captured than others outside city bubbles.

noobermin 8y ago
Certain goods are similarly priced, the goods/rents most important for life are expensive. Also, there is a cost regarding loss of job opportunities outside of city centers.
nugget 8y ago
Real estate, education, and health care have become much more expensive, while most other products and services (clothes, electronics, travel, entertainment, etc.) have remained flat or become less expensive.
- NTDF9 8y ago
  In short, everything necessary for survival has a hidden negotiation/no listed fees and thus is expensive.
olliej 8y ago
The bulk of the vast majority of people’s expenses are the “fixed” living costs: utilities and rent/mortgage. So if the average property increases the average cost of living also increases. The cost of food, and utilities is tied to usage so those costs don’t really change (fungible) based on where you live; but your accommodation does. That’s basically because for non-luxury goods the price is a function of actual cost to produce and market supply. For accommodation it isn’t possible to just buy an additional house at a shop and live there - you are fundamentally constrained by what Is already available. Your example of a macbook isn’t actually super good as while you are right: a given MacBook model costs the same, but someone can always get a cheaper model, or just a cheaper laptop in general. But if your job is in place A, then you need to have a home that is close enough for that to be reachable, so your options are limited so you can’t reduce the cost of your job. Interestingly/depressingly this has the effect of further reducing the effective hourly wage of minimum wage workers, as they have to spend more time traveling to their place of employment. Your example of 25k in pdunk Alabama needs to account for the similarly reduced cost of housing. Take Merced, ca for example (a place I know)- that’s 2-3hours from San Francisco but house price there is like 200k. Before you say “why not commute from there”, that’s time without traffic. At commute times I would guess your looking at more than 4 hours each way. For an 8 hour shift you’re commuting another 8 hours, so functionally you’re getting paid half the minimum Wage (from your POV, I’m not saying your employer owes you for that) [edit typing on a phone is apparently hard. I corrected a bunch of awful and incoherent sentences]
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  Don't some schools require MacBooks or iPads for students?
  - olliej 8y ago
    Not public schools, and private schools in America at least easily costs tens of thousands of dollars each year. (Public schools could use them, but need to provide them to so they don't deny education to students from poorer families)
- 5555624 8y ago
  >The cost of food, and utilities is tied to usage so those costs don’t really change (fungible) based on where you live; but your accommodation does. It depends on the utility. A larger home can mean increased costs for some utilities, such as those associated with heat and cooling. As an example, now that I am in a house, my electric bill is twice what it was when I was in a two-bedroom apartment, largely due to cooling costs. (The house is larger than the apartment.) Water and trash? About the same. Natural gas is slightly lower. (An actual meter versus a "formula" applied to all the apartments in the building.)
  - olliej 8y ago
    At the same time a bigger house may also be /cheaper/ due to better materials and higher quality equipment. That said I recognize that there is some variance, hence fungible :)
garmaine 8y ago
Why should it cost different? Same factory, same suppliers, largely the same distribution chain.
- mgkimsal 8y ago
  if it's being sold in a store, that store has real estate, and presumably the real estate costs for business locations may be somewhat tied to other real estate-related pricing (individual housing, primarily). Those prices would affect the bottom line of the retailer. $21/sqft vs $80/sqft would probably have an impact on the margins many businesses would have.
  - paxys 8y ago
    Amount of traffic in a store in a popular location usually makes up for the increased price. Plus a lot of companies run some retail stores at a loss just for the advertising.
  - baddox 8y ago
    Well, clearly stores couldn’t charge much of a premium for items that aren’t impulse purchases and can be shipped from elsewhere in the country, because people would just have them shipped. Relatively small expensive items like phones and laptops would definitely fall into that category.
  - kyleblarson 8y ago
    If this were a feasible business model a multistate / multinational company would have already tried it and succeeded.
    - softawre 8y ago
      A business that doesn't have brick and mortar shops in high cost locations? All internet businesses?
IAmGraydon 8y ago
That’s one major advantage of living in an area with high cost of living. National products are priced the same everywhere, making them much cheaper when measuring the price as a percentage of total income. Take your MacBook example and apply it to big ticket items like cars and vacations and you can really see how living in these areas makes a lot of things more affordable.
- briandear 8y ago
  Assuming you got to the area soon enough to avoid a $1.5 million entry level house and the taxes that go with it.
- nightski 8y ago
  This may be true if you are tied to the average income of an area. But good software engineers generally are not. I am able to enjoy a SV level of income in a much lower cost of living area.
- raverbashing 8y ago
  Yeah, but it depends on how much you can save beyond your cost of living It's easier to afford a new laptop when your rent is double of what it costs. But a new laptop is a once every couple of years expense, so

noobermin 8y ago

Certain goods are similarly priced, the goods/rents most important for life are expensive. Also, there is a cost regarding loss of job opportunities outside of city centers.

nugget 8y ago

Real estate, education, and health care have become much more expensive, while most other products and services (clothes, electronics, travel, entertainment, etc.) have remained flat or become less expensive.

NTDF9 8y ago
In short, everything necessary for survival has a hidden negotiation/no listed fees and thus is expensive.

olliej 8y ago

The bulk of the vast majority of people’s expenses are the “fixed” living costs: utilities and rent/mortgage. So if the average property increases the average cost of living also increases. The cost of food, and utilities is tied to usage so those costs don’t really change (fungible) based on where you live; but your accommodation does. That’s basically because for non-luxury goods the price is a function of actual cost to produce and market supply. For accommodation it isn’t possible to just buy an additional house at a shop and live there - you are fundamentally constrained by what Is already available. Your example of a macbook isn’t actually super good as while you are right: a given MacBook model costs the same, but someone can always get a cheaper model, or just a cheaper laptop in general. But if your job is in place A, then you need to have a home that is close enough for that to be reachable, so your options are limited so you can’t reduce the cost of your job. Interestingly/depressingly this has the effect of further reducing the effective hourly wage of minimum wage workers, as they have to spend more time traveling to their place of employment. Your example of 25k in pdunk Alabama needs to account for the similarly reduced cost of housing. Take Merced, ca for example (a place I know)- that’s 2-3hours from San Francisco but house price there is like 200k. Before you say “why not commute from there”, that’s time without traffic. At commute times I would guess your looking at more than 4 hours each way. For an 8 hour shift you’re commuting another 8 hours, so functionally you’re getting paid half the minimum Wage (from your POV, I’m not saying your employer owes you for that) [edit typing on a phone is apparently hard. I corrected a bunch of awful and incoherent sentences]

voltagex_ 8y ago
Don't some schools require MacBooks or iPads for students?
- olliej 8y ago
  Not public schools, and private schools in America at least easily costs tens of thousands of dollars each year. (Public schools could use them, but need to provide them to so they don't deny education to students from poorer families)
5555624 8y ago
>The cost of food, and utilities is tied to usage so those costs don’t really change (fungible) based on where you live; but your accommodation does. It depends on the utility. A larger home can mean increased costs for some utilities, such as those associated with heat and cooling. As an example, now that I am in a house, my electric bill is twice what it was when I was in a two-bedroom apartment, largely due to cooling costs. (The house is larger than the apartment.) Water and trash? About the same. Natural gas is slightly lower. (An actual meter versus a "formula" applied to all the apartments in the building.)
- olliej 8y ago
  At the same time a bigger house may also be /cheaper/ due to better materials and higher quality equipment. That said I recognize that there is some variance, hence fungible :)

garmaine 8y ago

Why should it cost different? Same factory, same suppliers, largely the same distribution chain.

mgkimsal 8y ago
if it's being sold in a store, that store has real estate, and presumably the real estate costs for business locations may be somewhat tied to other real estate-related pricing (individual housing, primarily). Those prices would affect the bottom line of the retailer. $21/sqft vs $80/sqft would probably have an impact on the margins many businesses would have.
- paxys 8y ago
  Amount of traffic in a store in a popular location usually makes up for the increased price. Plus a lot of companies run some retail stores at a loss just for the advertising.
- baddox 8y ago
  Well, clearly stores couldn’t charge much of a premium for items that aren’t impulse purchases and can be shipped from elsewhere in the country, because people would just have them shipped. Relatively small expensive items like phones and laptops would definitely fall into that category.
- kyleblarson 8y ago
  If this were a feasible business model a multistate / multinational company would have already tried it and succeeded.
  - softawre 8y ago
    A business that doesn't have brick and mortar shops in high cost locations? All internet businesses?

IAmGraydon 8y ago

That’s one major advantage of living in an area with high cost of living. National products are priced the same everywhere, making them much cheaper when measuring the price as a percentage of total income. Take your MacBook example and apply it to big ticket items like cars and vacations and you can really see how living in these areas makes a lot of things more affordable.

briandear 8y ago
Assuming you got to the area soon enough to avoid a $1.5 million entry level house and the taxes that go with it.
nightski 8y ago
This may be true if you are tied to the average income of an area. But good software engineers generally are not. I am able to enjoy a SV level of income in a much lower cost of living area.
raverbashing 8y ago
Yeah, but it depends on how much you can save beyond your cost of living It's easier to afford a new laptop when your rent is double of what it costs. But a new laptop is a once every couple of years expense, so