Yes, anyone attempting to say that living in a first world country on $125,000 &quot;sucks&quot; is open to this criticism.  I&#x27;d probably avoid phrasing it this way.<p>However, I&#x27;m generally in agreement with the post.  I live in a relatively unfashionable neighborhood south of 280 in SF.  Dumping and graffiti are common, front easements (yards) are paved over for extra parking or broken down car storage (illegally, but with extremely indifferent enforcement).  Local schools aren&#x27;t highly ranked in terms of test scores (though this doesn&#x27;t matter all that much in SF, which is run by lottery much to the chagrin of people who live in higher performing districts).  It would be very, very difficult to buy into this neighborhood in SF on $125k a year.  You&#x27;d have trouble buying for much under a mil.  On two incomes you can, but keep in mind, child care runs about $25k per year per kid, and even with kids in SFUSD (&quot;free&quot;), you have to pay extra for after care and summer camps, which will run you about 10k per kid per year even if you&#x27;re doing things relatively cheaply (YMCA or SF park and rec run programs).   At &quot;upper class&quot; incomes, you will lose the tax break for these things, so the second spouse needs to make a substantial salary before things get better financially.<p>Does living here &quot;suck&quot; by global standards of poverty?  No way, not even slightly.  Is it the kind of &quot;upper class&quot; life you&#x27;d expect for a dual income household of highly educated and skilled workers living in ground zero for a severe labor shortage for wildly profitable companies?<p>San Francisco is wonky, but keep in mind, the companies that say that there is a severe shortage of workers often do demand that their workers live out here, so the $125k salary really should be considered in the context of SF or NY level housing prices.