Originally Posted by
nfmisso
In San Jose; the average 1 bedroom apartment rents for just under $2400 per month. At $17- per hour AFTER taxes (not gross), you have to work almost four full time weeks just to pay rent - forget about food, clothing, hobby, transport, savings, anything else at all.
All of the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, LA, San Diego have similar cost of living. Average starting salaries at bigger companies in the Bay Area for ME, EE and Computer Science kids right out of school with a BS is around $100K per year ($50- per hour).
CA is a great place to be if you have the $$$$$$.
It's getting pretty scary over there. Starting to resemble 3rd world countries where there are fewer and fewer in between great wealth and poverty. I read an article several years ago that described how the middle class is becoming CA's greatest export.