You need to earn $157k in blue SF to equal the income of a person making $50k in red WVA

[Sibelius Fan]

adjusted for cost of living.

One person gets the $1400 stimulus. One doesn’t. Guess who doesn’t.

[Autumn]

1. I'm pretty fucking sure the person in SF who needs it won't get it. I don't even wonder why

but I do what to know why the fuck is that okay. Why is that okay with anyone.

[LonePirate]

5. Two reasons. People are bad at math and many are oblivious to life outside their own bubble.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. Joe Manchin knew what he was doing.

[Amishman]

38. Bubble thinking also applies to the minimum wage conversation

There are places (and some are in WV) where cost of living is very low and a fast (over a few years) rise to $15 would be damaging to businesses.

Minimum wages, stimulus payments, and many other forms of aid would be best based on the median income of their county. This would also be a long term fix as that median income would rise with inflation and economic growth. The problem is this creates an incentive for fraud by faking residency in a higher income area for more public assistance.

The other factor is mobility. It is much easier financially to relocate from a high income area to a low income one. Someone with $300k in equity on a million dollar home in the bay area could buy a decent home in many areas with just that equity.

[Goodheart]

2. So, move away from San Francisco

I don't know why the government should be propagating higher costs of living in certain places?

[Sibelius Fan]

4. Er, because urban centers are the financial and cultural hubs of the country?

Really?

You totally miss my point. You seem to think a cut-off to benefits based on a dollar figure of salary is anything but arbitrary.

[Goodheart]

6. Is that some cosmic law somewhere? That SF has to be the financial and cultural hub of the country?

Kind of amazing, actually, that you would include the word "cultural" in your reply. I guess West Virginians are all hicks?

[harumph]

13. It's because people in bumfuck Kentucky don't know math and stuff,

[Goodheart]

14. What really bugs me is that many of these San Franciscans had to be very well off in the first place

to buy in to the community, and then complain about the cost of living.

Sell the house. Get hundreds of thousands of dollars. Move to West Virginia. Live like a king.

The way I see it... anything that homogenizes the cost of living across the country is a good thing.

[Yavin4]

29. People live in expensive cities like SF, NYC, CHI, Boston, etc. because that's where the better

paying jobs and career opportunities exist. Those better opportunities do not exist in places like WVa. largely because of their anti-education policies of their state government and their intolerance of diversity.

Show me a place with a lot of high tech jobs, and I will show you good public schools and a racially/ethnically diverse population.

[moonscape]

37. SF is not made up of weathy

people who moved there and then started complaining. Many have been priced out but remain because it is their home, where family and friends are. Yes, there are well-paid Google folks who moved in and started pricing others out of places like the Mission fer cryin’ out loud.

Easy for someone to instruct others to leave their home.

[Autumn]

42. If I had to leave my state I would be lost. My life is here, my friends my family. My dead are

buried here.My memories are here. My roots are here. I would die before I moved to a place like WV. I have nothing there. Not even a decent politician.

[Bonn1997]

7. Agreed. What matters is the ratio of wages to CoL.

If the ratio is bad in one place, don’t stay.

[Elessar Zappa]

8. Because that's where the jobs are.

Vast majority of our economic productivity comes from urban centers. That’s why people live there.

[smirkymonkey]

18. Thank YOU!

Sheesh!

[MichMan]

21. The pandemic has shown that people can work remotely

No longer a need for many people to live near their jobs anymore

NYC for one is going to find that out the hard way

[NickB79]

25. Vast areas of the US have crappy Internet service

And are this off-limits for working from home.

[Yavin4]

30. That won't last for long when the pandemic ends.

Working remotely will limit your career growth as opposed to going into the office every day.

[Sibelius Fan]

33. Sports teams, museums, orchestras, live theater companies

cannot work remotely.

[lostnfound]

36. Medical technicians and nurses in San Fran make more than 75K

What did they ever do to deserve government support??
They should work from home next time!

[BannonsLiver]

9. +100000

[haele]

15. Just wait until red retirees from blue states sell their homes and move to WV or

Other low cost of living states. This is happening all over Red 'murica, where Californians, New Yorkers, Seattlites, are selling their 1980's/1990's cheap bungalows or McMansions for a million or more, then buying up cheaper local properties at an inflated price, especially investment properties (rentals, etc), driving the prices and cost of living for the lower paid locals.
And businesses moving to those locations aren't going to raise wages just because property prices and rents are going up.

Cost of living in the cities lead cost of living in the rural areas. If you don't address the pain of living in one location, that pain will move out into other locations.

Rural America is not safe from the advance of technology or progress.

Haele

[pnwmom]

22. And leave a good job. There aren't enough jobs in affordable places to do that. n/t

[Goodheart]

27. So, if you have a good job in San Francisco why precisely should you whine for a stimulus check?

[Sibelius Fan]

34. A good job in WVA pays $50,000. Why should that person get a stimulus check?

[Goodheart]

35. I don't accept your premise that $50K in WVa is equal to $157k in SF

Besides that:

1- Who said I agree with stimulus money for anybody, in either place, who hung on to a good job?
2- You're contradicting pnwmom, who just said that good jobs are not available in places like West Va.
3- West Virginians don't have access to those pro sports teams or fancy museums, right?

Move away. Live like a king. Stop whining.

[Sibelius Fan]

44. The premise is based on results from two different and reliable CoL calculators.

I didn’t make it up.

[HUAJIAO]

3. Sibelius-- the timpani roll king !!!

[Elessar Zappa]

10. That's why I think they should have

given the stimulus to everyone. So what if some don’t need it? It’s easier than doing means testing. That said, I’m fairly happy with this bill and am glad Democrats are helping the people of this nation.

[Mr.Bill]

26. I agree. Plenty of businesses who didn't need it

got it last time, didn't they?

[Yavin4]

31. Give it to everyone and tax it back if their income exceeds a certain level.

Simple.

[OnDoutside]

11. Should Senators be earning salaries equal to the going rate in their States ?

[Sibelius Fan]

12. Of course, they're paid $174,000 a year in part because they need to maintain

a residence in DC, which is a high rent area.

[Baitball Blogger]

24. Which is... wait for it... cost of living in D.C.

[Goodheart]

28. And paying people higher money to live in higher cost places is just a vicious circle,

isn't it?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. If everybody got a check it wouldn't be an issue.

[pecosbob]

17. Honestly, as one of 2/3 of the nation that doesn't make 50K

I give less weight to the plight of those in the upper third than those in the bottom.

[senseandsensibility]

19. Blue states support the red states

Repeat after me...blue states support the red states. Or if you prefer blue states pay the vast majority of federal taxes that make things like the Covid relief bill possible. Really don't get the blue state bashing here.

[MichMan]

20. Those in the upper 10% of wages should be paying the taxes, shouldn't they?

No one is bashing blue states, just the idea that people making $160k in SF should be thought of in the same way as those in the bottom 50%

[Hortensis]

32. People moving to expensive cities tend to accept substantial tradeoffs

in such things as home sizes and having children for the amenities they come for, including the jobs they dreamed of in college and vibrant culture.

Figures don't truly reflect the real costs of living in either place that can't adjust 2400 square foot single family homes in WV to 1200 square foot apartments in SF, or more children in WV to fewer in SF. Residents in both places shift their spending to what's important to them.

[radius777]

39. +1. Metro areas are the base of the Dem party.

The only reason Dems win anything is due to turnout in urban and suburban areas.

Now some of our base will not get the money, while MAGAts do - thanks to Manchin.

Wish we had just given Manchin cuts in other parts of the bill that would not matter as much politically.

[Celerity]

40. A person making 80K in SF doesnt get a cheque either, and that is like making 25,500 usd in WV

I have to shake my damn head at so many posts on here that state (completely seriously) that a person living in a major city like LA, SF, Boston, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, DC, San Diego, etc etc is swimming in cash if they make 80K usd per year in AGI. It is laughable.

[madville]

41. I lived in the Bay Area for several years

Made about 130k and it was a decent living but rented over on Alameda Island, it was cheaper ($2000 a month rent) than anything in SF and just a ferry ride away. I really couldn’t afford to buy anything in the area on just that income.

I moved back to the Southeast and my salary dropped 40%, but was easily able to afford and build a house on 6 acres for under $250k, with insurance and taxes the payment is only $1300 a month.

[Kaleva]

43. Considering the difference in purchasing pwr, $1400 to someone in San Fran is a slap in the face.

$1400 in San Fran is like paying for the cost of a Starbucks coffee every day for a year. In West Virginia, one could buy a few acres of land with that.