@jjg-re our periodic discussion about the cost of living in US.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/14/how-much-money-a-family-of-four-needs-to-live-comfortably-in-all-50-states.htmlAn eye-opening article.
Here is the kicker:
US median household makes about 80K/year (per article), yet "a family of four needs at least $186,618 a year to
live comfortably* in Mississippi in 2025, the country’s most affordable state, found a SmartAsset study that published on June 4."
Later it shows data for all 50 states (from the aforementioned $186618 to $313747 in Massachusetts).
Wowza!
* live comfortably
“Living comfortably” means having enough income to dedicate 50% to necessary costs, 30% to discretionary wants and 20% to debt payments and saving, also known as following the 50/30/20 budget, according to the study.
EDIT: An easy calculation shows that in the
cheapest state 50% (which is defined as "necessary costs") of 186618 is $93309, which is 13k HIGHER than the median family income country-wide.
Is there anything like a poverty treshold in the US?
In my here parts, it's actually defined at about $1400 per month, adjusted to inflation every year, which is roughly $17k pa.
For a family of 4 (depending on age of the family members) this value is rising in a slightly non-linear fashion, but even if you multiply $17k by 4 ($68k) it's 2.5 times less than "living comfortably" in the cheapest state.
I'd like to see this numbers compared to past times, let's say within the last 30 years, with like 5 or 10 year intervals.
This would give some clue about the real inflationary effects over time.