California is losing it's luster

[Astroslik]

in my experience, [young] black professional is generally applied to black college+ educated folks with decent (~$45/50k+) white collar incomes

the DMV has a much bigger middle-upper middle class of blacks...that's compared to everywhere in the US. yea, the hood is the hood, but DMV stands out above every metro area - them fed jobs feed people.

and it's hard to compare black people in the bay and chicago, i have beef with both areas. what i will say made chicago feel a step behind is the stark segregation, like you can draw a soft line east to west starting around south loop and a hard line east to west through downtown and you'll be hard pressed to even see "upwardly mobile" black folks in neighborhoods above river north...shyt was just disturbing given the high population of black people in chicago.

i can agree with this. Only Milwaukee has Chicago beat with overt segregation

 

[Panther]

Even besides the COL

Some of those laws are awful

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Yes and no. Some people actually want to do better and you can see them struggle because the system is set up to make it difficult to do the right thing. Some are embarrassed to be on public assistance and bust ass to get off it.

But if you don't care about your image or the stigma of being on public assistance, those people absolutely have it better with a child.

Notice I said they have it better and not the child.

Income restrictions mean they don't have to work full time. House and food is paid for every month. And if they need a few dollars to go out or get something for themselves, they can hit up one of their male "friends".

They live like perpetual teenagers. That type of life isn't possible for an adult that's not on public assistance.

they absolutely don't have it better, especially not with how they've tightened up on assistance requirements. people collecting assistance (those not committing fraud) aren't in a better lifestyle with a kid + assistance than they'd be alone. people on assistance who really need it are just making it and/or still falling short, a kid puts them further behind (assistance doesn't cover cloths, diapers, the additional high costs of health/scripts - even with medicaid).

and i wont even get into this male friend thing you're talking about...one, that's not a guarantee, anyone of any income can do that, and it ignores that most people on assistance are in a low socioeconomic class, thus the people they know are in the same situation, who are these ballers who just waiting to pay bills and give dough to the vast amount of single mothers on assistance?

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Depends on where you live, how you manage your money, and if you got a family to support or not. A $100K is good in Cali don't get it twisted. We gotta break down different levels to this shyt instead of saying one big number and how it doesn't work here. And if you're in Fresno, Bakersfield, or Sac your money goes farther than in The Bay, LA, or SD. This is a big ass state. I will give an advantage to Dallas, Houston, ATL in that if you're making $100K you should be a homeowner in those cities. You can't really say that for a LA or NY. People have to realize that the money is in these big cities. I go to the ATL a few times a year just to hang out and there's tons of people there that ain't making any dough to even take advantage of living in the cheaper South. I visit fam in Mississippi- not a desirable place I know- but its dirt cheap out there but guess what.. No money/no jobs whatsoever to even take advantage of living there. You have to make bread people!

With proper money management and good income and married you can buy a home in both LA and NY with an FHA loan.