I'm not so sure. I think instead the panic might be more acute due to the exhorbitant cost of living. The salary difference is significant, but it's not necessa

I'm not so sure. I think instead the panic might be more acute due to the exhorbitant cost of living. The salary difference is significant, but it's not necessarily enough to confer a rate of savings sufficient for the typical American household (2.5 kids, mortgage, student loan debts, etc.) to withstand more than a few weeks of unemployment, let alone months. Right now I'm reasonably confident that I can go from being dumped out of my contract to having an equal (or higher) paying contract in a matter of a 2-3 weeks. If (when) that changes, I'll pack my family up and move, probably to Chicago. It's easier and less stressful to save a few months' worth of runway earning $120k in Chicago than it is earning $150k-$180k here. If other personal issues weren't impeding it, I'd already have done so, but circumstances are more likely to keep me here for at least a few years. The hot market here won't last, and it seems to me the hottest parts of the job market now are becoming even more narrowly focused on a segment of the labor market I'm simply not a part of (young, willing to work 50-60 hours a week for no overtime, below-market compensation + an equity lottery ticket and kitschy foosball-table nonsense).