Bevy

It's not just housing costs and affordable housing availability which are astronomical and non-existent respectively. Most of the industrialized world have socialized healthcare but the US does not.

In the US you'll pay for health insurance and still have hundreds and hundreds of dollars to pay out-of-pocket for even a simple checkup beyond a yearly physical, which is to say nothing of drug prices.

Not to say things aren't expensive elsewhere but the health insurance thing is the kicker in the US. You could be making 150k, be paying for insurance and still be beyond fucked by a major health-event.

That said 150k is a big salary here too, like top 10% of the population. You basically only see this kind of salary inflation in tech jobs.