What the heck are you talking about?
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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This guy taking some pretty long showers
He's saying living in a poor area because col is cheaper has a risk if you lose your job that you might have to take a crappy one.
I see arguments like this for why everyone has to go live in cities where a single family home is a million bucks.
It's categorically wrong. Of course if you go to live somewhere with a cheaper cost of living, there's going to be a cheaper cost of living. The data does not bear out the idea that a high cost of living also necessarily means a commensurate wage.
Cost of living is not magical. It is created by the opportunities available. If people can pay more for the house or rent, the market will adjust to it. The regulating factor is simply the opportunities available. All other factors are peripheral.
If you can export money by working remotely, you're floating on a rare exception to the rule. If everyone could do the same, the cost of living would adjust to compensate. You are essentially taking the same risk as an ancient merchant on a ship. When the circumstances change, you can easily find yourself stuck in a place without any opportunities.
The fallacy is looking at cost of living as some kind of magical random generated number. It is not. It is a direct measure of the opportunities available to the average person. It doesn't matter where you live, how poor or how rich the area seems, the average person is encountering the exact same pressure and stress about simply staying afloat. The grass is not greener on either side of the fence. The only difference is the availability of opportunities for the average person in an area.
Thank you for the TLDR
It works if you already have some semblance of wealth or can work remote. Someone looking to retire may find it doesn't work where they are but they can buy the same house for half the cost in South Dakota and suddenly things pencil out.
And other instances may work as well. If a job is paying $20 an hour in a big city and $17 in a different area but rent is 30 percent cheaper it can be a difference maker, but relocating is expensive.
Just wanted to defend the other side of your blanket statement