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Comment by retired | Hacker News Reader

The lifestyle I refer to is living in a bike friendly city, being able to afford a multi-thousand euro cargo bike and having secure storage for it. OP also appears to live in a house with a yard on top of that. That lifestyle is reserved for very high earners.

Edit, reply to Lukan as I am rate limited with my comments: I’m sure that those people you saw in Leipzig and Berlin are global 5% earners, maybe even 1%-ers. That is a very luxurious lifestyle that not many can achieve.

Edit 2, again to Lukan. My point still stands that the Germany lifestyle is very luxurious compared to the rest of the world. And even in Germany, you need a decent income if you want to live in a high density city.

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"Edit, reply to Lukan as I am rate limited with my comments: I’m sure that those people you saw in Leipzig and Berlin are global 5% earners, maybe even 1%-ers. That is a very luxurious lifestyle that not many can achieve."

I am pretty sure they are not, I don't just see them, but also speak with them. But normal approach is not compare "global 5% earners", as probably all of germany would fall into that bucket, but compare locally. So can a normal german household afford them?

And the answer is yes. But if the household also needs a SUV and a garage for that, then maybe not.

But I was talking about people who cannot afford their own house. And they could afford a cheap car - or a cargo bike.

"Edit 2, again to Lukan. My point still stands that the Germany lifestyle is very luxurious compared to the rest of the world."

I never debated that.

"And even in Germany, you need a decent income if you want to live in a high density city."

But this is not correct. You can get a 4 room apartment in Leipzig for 750 € a month (but of course you won't be the only one applying).

Also you may want to email dang about your rate limitation. Your recent comments seem fine enough to me to fix that.

Rate limits, once applied, are almost never removed.

Indeed, I’ll make a new account. Typically burn through them in a couple of months.

Hm. Maybe visit a city like Leipzig or Berlin? Lot's of cargo bikes - some do belong to high earners, but most do not. Finding a suitable place to rent with secure storage is hard, but most old houses for example do have a big enough entrance house floor, where the bike can stand and this is what people do. Otherwise bike sheds in front of the house are becoming standard as well.

im a bit confused.

in poorer places people use more bikes, or just walk.

the car based spots are from wealth, and many had bicycle friendly infrastructure that was torn down to build super highways for cars

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