People at All Levels Can Struggle to Make Ends Meet
The discussion started with what annual income a family should have to be able to afford an upstairs unit in a New York City row house in a sort-of-safe neighborhood. The figures are pretty eye-popping for people who live in areas with more modest housing expenses, but what was truly astonishing was the reaction of many readers to those numbers: anger, hostility. Accusations that these people were spoiled, entitled, oblivious to what real struggle was.
And most astonishingly, this wasn't even a real family being discussed, even if the property was an actual address in the Big Apple. No, it was just a hypothetical family that the writers had worked out a budget for, probably as an illustration of just how outrageously expensive it is to live in New York. But instead of sparking a discussion of what circumstances and policies are driving those prices, and what might be done to make more affordable housing available, we see a boiling over of resentment and anger, which can actually become an obstacle to constructive discussion of a problem.
And most astonishingly, this wasn't even a real family being discussed, even if the property was an actual address in the Big Apple. No, it was just a hypothetical family that the writers had worked out a budget for, probably as an illustration of just how outrageously expensive it is to live in New York. But instead of sparking a discussion of what circumstances and policies are driving those prices, and what might be done to make more affordable housing available, we see a boiling over of resentment and anger, which can actually become an obstacle to constructive discussion of a problem.