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Comment by Rantenki | Hacker News Reader

That 68k/yr wage only sounds good if you're still thinking in circa year 2000 dollars. Nobody is making the mortgage on a house on 68k/year, and they're not starting a happy family if they have to do 20+hrs/week overtime in order to turn 25/hr into 68k/year. I remember earning nearly exactly that wage back in the early 2000s, and barely making ends meet in a cheap rental, so it's certainly not a great wage today.

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The national average salary is $63,795 [0], so they're making about $4k more. Just because they're not earning 6 figures working in their first tech job doesn't mean that it's bad.

>I remember earning nearly exactly that wage back in the early 2000s, and barely making ends meet in a cheap rental

I made $10/hr my first job after college while living in a studio by myself in 2011 (and that was with student loan payments!), and I was barely able to get by, so how were you barely able to get by then on almost $70k a year?

[0] https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/average-salary-in-us/

> The national average salary is $63,795 [0], so they're making about $4k more. Just because they're not earning 6 figures working in their first tech job doesn't mean that it's bad.

The average rent nationally is $1860. In the Bay Area it’s $2650.

That’s not to say it’s bad. But the numbers are meaningless without some localized pricing or cost adjustment.

$68K/yr is plenty of money for a single person. And that's just an entry level salary, offered to someone in high school - you would have the opportunity to make far more as you gain more experience. By the time you're looking to start a family and buy a house I don't see why that's not a very promising career.

I earned that wage circa 2008 and saved half my salary.

What you say is true, but unaffordable housing is a product of too few homes, and not one of too low wages.

If there aren’t enough homes to go around, home prices will rise to a level that only the wealthier can afford.

There's enough homes.

There is a severe shortage of homes in the United States. The problem is particularly acute in high opportunity cities where the jobs are located. Here is but one of the literally hundreds of sources describing the problem:

https://www.uschamber.com/economy/the-state-of-housing-in-am...

Depends on where you live, I was making $42,000 in 2013 in the Midwest, and was fine. If my now-spouse and I had wanted to start a family then, it could have been done--obviously more doable with both parents working.

Plenty of people get by on less than six-figure household incomes--they just live in lower-cost areas of the country.

Find a spouse with a job.

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