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I don't think he's a tech worker. Tech workers (well, the type who might consider moving to London) don't sweat the cost of cars; if they don't care much for cars and don't live in NYC they buy a grocery-getter or two and don't worry about cost. If they like cars they likely buy a Tesla and still don't worry about cost.
I’m a SWE making big tech rates. But I am early in my career, have a huge amount of student debt from bad decisions I made in the past, am paying a lot of rent, and kind of hate working and want to retire fast. So it’s not actually over my budget or anything but it doesn’t feel good because I’d rather invest that money to get out of the system faster than spend it on something that feels like a waste. That said the high rent is definitely more of a burden than the car expense.
Yeah, your worry about car cost is ideological, not logical. Were you to move somewhere where you could easily get by without a car, you'd find the difference in living expenses (and/or loss of salary) were greater than the cost of the car.
That seems plausible - too much demand for housing in safe, clean, walkable areas and not enough supply so the rent is through the roof.
That's a side effect of walking being slow and cramming more people in smaller areas making safety and cleanliness far more difficult.
In America, anyway. Tokyo and Vienna are doing just fine.
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