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Comment by dudul | Hacker News Reader

As usual, nationwide statistics always seem kind of dumb. OK, I'm only in the 5th percentile, but I live in a very rural area, in a state with very low taxes where real estate is still reasonable. So yeah, I'm not in the 1%, but I bet my buying power is at least on par with a 1% living in NYC, SF, etc.

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A friend worked in the national statistics org in France (INSEE). There were internal fights about separating statistics about Paris (stupid expensive, lots of growth) vs the rest of France (not expensive, slow growth). The unifiers won, unfortunately.

Same thing with London vs the UK.

There is so much difference between some capitals and their countryside nowadays, they could be different countries.

Indeed.

I had high hopes that the advent of the Internet would allow me to go live in cheap places and still earn a comfortable income from top-tier companies.

But silly me, I work in embedded, where being close to the hardware you're developing is practically mandatory :p

what does buying power mean? like, you're able to buy some house on your not 1% salary in your rural area, and a person on a 1% salary in nyc/sf could not buy an equivalently nice house?

"buying power. the ability to purchase goods and services" (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/buying-power)

So yes. With a lower salary in a specific area, I can probably buy the same goods and services as someone with a higher salary in a different area.

Next thing, you will claim your stress level is lower .. jk

Nah I won't go there, I'm always stressing about things :) That's why I need to be surrounded by trees!

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