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That isn't true in SV and FAANG either.

I didn't really mean to imply it was. I just omitted them because I don't know first-hand how such things are with those companies.

I got my first FAANG job at 45 years old. So I’m not really sure what they mean here.

It’s not true anywhere I have ever worked.

Perhaps, but unfortunately that's where much of the money is. So unless an engineer is ok with their income getting cut in half or so...

Well, a smart engineer would look at their income adjusted according to their CoL. Those amazing-sounding salaries in SV are offset by how expensive everything is.

If I can live with a higher standard of living at half the nominal salary, am I really making less?

Is it really a higher standard of living if you lack the amenities that make those places popular and as a result expensive?

Well, it depends on what you value. If you consider being in a specific area critical for your standard of living, then the computation changes accordingly, of course.

But not everyone considers living there to have a positive impact on their standard of living. They live there to get a high-paying job. Of the dozen or so people I personally know who live in that area, half of them would prefer to live somewhere else.