via ofthegarden:
It kind of annoys me off when people say things like, “You could never live in New York on X amount of money” or, in this case, “How could you survive in Manhattan on $63,000?” (see also: this dumb kid). Back when I was living in Manhattan and earning roughly less than a third of the previously mentioned sum (oh boy, remember earning a salary? those days were nice), I lived quite decently. Sure, I wasn’t buying designer clothes or living in a spacious apartment or even taking cabs, but I wasn’t suffering by any means.
When people say those types of statements about living in New York, I imagine they mean to say, “how could you live a comfortable upper-middle-class lifestyle on that salary?” Maybe bad TV shows, Julia Allison’s pink lifestream or their own life experiences have normalized that lifestyle into being the only option available in Manhattan. It is true: You can’t live an upper-middle-class lifestyle in New York on $63,000 (unless you love credit card debt). However, there are a lot of people who survive in New York on a lot less than that.
Amen. Comments like that always remind me of Daily Intel’s 21 Questions, one of which is “Would You Live Here on Less Than $35,000 a Year?” Sometimes the respondents say “of course” or “I did live here on that salary at one point”, but the number of people who say “NO WAY” always astonishes me. Granted I benefit from the cheaper rents in Brooklyn, but I live quite happily on less than 35k, as do a LOT of people. Do I sometimes wish I could get weekly massages and take frequent vacations and eat dinner at Vinegar Hill House every night? Sure. Am I suffering? Unless you consider not having HBO “suffering”, then…no.
Adding to that: most people I know pretty much make do with half of $35K — possibly a third after taxes. Our neuroses and panic attacks synch up, but then we imbibe, laugh it off, and continue doing what we came to New York to do. Maybe that’s the problem? A lot of people came to the city without a specific goal in mind. Eventually they’ll move back to the Midwest or somewhere less difficult. This isn’t a slight on them, it just makes sense. Despite having goals of my own, I could very well be them at any point. I think it’s the strangest phenomenon. Everyone seems to be bitching about the recession, but most people don’t quite understand what they’re bitching about. And HBO? Do people not know how to use the internet anymore? That’s made pay cable obsolete.
