alt Hacker NewsMedian income != Livable income
Livable income = income that pays for (housing, food, clothing, transportation, medical preventative care and treatment, an emergency fund) x 4
( x 2 for retirement savings without assumption of unbounded economic growth, x 2 for government stealing half your money [1])
I don't think the median is making that number. So that's not the number I'd go off of.
[1] pre-emptive note to shut up the people who will inevitably come to this forum just to lecture me that taxes aren't that high. they are. a LOT of government money-stealing is hidden into things that aren't paid in April, and things that aren't explicitly labelled as taxes.
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I assure you that a married couple making 600k a year has plenty of money.
Also, the government stealing half of your money is a ridiculous over-exaggeration. This year my MFJ household income will be around $950,000. My effective tax rate is nowhere near 50%.
If you're going to claim that literally half the households living in a city aren't making a livable wage, then I'm going to claim you're exactly the type of person I'm describing who has a cushier view of livable wage than reality.
I agree that your definition is a comfortable living, but that's not reality for the majority of americans.