You may be conflating income/productivity with living standard. $150k is a high salary - but cost of living can be even higher. Note that cost of living is primarily a euphemism for rent. So you may be working in a highly productive / useful field and earning a high salary, while your actual standard of living has reduced because you pay more for housing, land, your local restaurant pays higher rent and therefore charges you more for meals, ditto for all other services, etc. This is in fact what Adam Smith would predict as a natural consequence of population increase.
Maybe in a 3rd world country, but that is borderline poverty living in silicon valley.
I think my anecdote of importing doctors to get paid scrubbing toilets is a fairly solid augment against artificial income suppression in any field of practice. Adam would likely be horrified modern indentured servitude proponents still exist. =3
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You may be conflating income/productivity with living standard. $150k is a high salary - but cost of living can be even higher. Note that cost of living is primarily a euphemism for rent. So you may be working in a highly productive / useful field and earning a high salary, while your actual standard of living has reduced because you pay more for housing, land, your local restaurant pays higher rent and therefore charges you more for meals, ditto for all other services, etc. This is in fact what Adam Smith would predict as a natural consequence of population increase.
Maybe in a 3rd world country, but that is borderline poverty living in silicon valley.
I think my anecdote of importing doctors to get paid scrubbing toilets is a fairly solid augment against artificial income suppression in any field of practice. Adam would likely be horrified modern indentured servitude proponents still exist. =3