How expensive is it where you live? Henderson, NV, where we currently live, is getting more and more populated and anyone could see that just going to the DMV. We've never lived anywhere where an appointment was a necessity at the DMV. When we did live in So California, never had to have an appointment to go to DMV. Of course we left there in 2002. Our auto insurance skyrocketed to $1,055 for 6 months. Auto insurance is very high here. And, as far as Las Vegas goes, with many Strip Hotels making tremendous improvements and a few new ones opening, it won't be long before only very rich folks will be able to afford to go there and stay. Then again, there are lots and lots of rich folks in America. Doctors, lawyers, CEO's, CFO's, COO's, engineers and so on. So, just how expensive is it to live where you do?
I think it's expensive to live everywhere nowadays. Prices just seem to keep climbing. We just got back from the optometrist where we got eye exams and ordered new glasses. The cost was an "eye opener."
We get one eye exam free, thru Medicare, each year due to being Diabetic II. But, if we get an additional thing done in the exam, than we have to pay for it. My wife's glasses cost us as well.
There was an article online about the California fast-food industry regular employees pay hick to $20 per hour. Now, McDonald's and Chipotle are going to raise the cost of their food. Customers don't like it, but when a law passes to raise the minimum wage, companies have to adjust some how. IOW, the consumer ends up paying for the wage increase.
Car insurance has been jacked up everywhere this year, it's not just your location. I gotta think that your DMV requiring appointments might be due to (a) increasing populations, and (b) legacy COVID paranoia where they are trying to space out customers. I moved from outside of DC to a very rural part of the state. To me "Cost of Living" differences are solely had through housing expenses. Gasoline and other stuff is the same or higher than congested areas, because we are more remote and stuff is being transported for fewer people (reduced economies of scale.) And we burn more gas (and put more wear & tear on our vehicles) because things are farther away. Up north I had my choice of 3-4 grocery stores within 1 mile of my house. Here in the country, Walmart is 8 miles away, and a real grocery store is over 20 (40 miles round trip.) When I moved here my truck was 5 years old. I doubled the miles on it in the first year I was here (meaning I drive 5x the miles here that I did in the congested region.) On the flip side, the buyers of my old home on 1/3 acre up north knocked it down and put up a new home. Total Value = $1,000,000 and they gotta pay the higher-region real estate taxes on it every year. My 51 acre place here cost under $300,000. My real estate taxes here are less than 1/2 of what they were on my old 600 ft² home on 1/3 acre, and that was the rates of 10 years ago. I imagine the difference these days is even greater. I think most people in rural areas are able to survive working retail or other non-office jobs because (a) there are multiple generations under one roof (as it used to be), and (b) family property gets subdivided, so all they fund is the cost of house construction (that's how my neighbors did it.)
Don’t get me started on eye glasses! I’m still fuming over the price of having just the lenses changed in my frames yesterday. My frames are pretty new yet and I needed to only change the prescription some. I bought them last year and I don’t wear glasses on my face constantly; only when I read, watch TV, and drive, so they are still in good shape. I wear bifocals. Nothing special about them. I asked to have the lens replaced just like what I have now only with a new prescription. The technician was trying to get me to add several other things to the lens. I told her 3 different times, NO; I want them the same-only the prescription bumped up. I was in shock when she told me the price of two lenses. I need cataract surgery but my eye doctor doesn’t feel I should have it done yet. Everything is blurry damnit! If this new glasses don’t do it for me, I am off to find another eye doctor.
McDonalds raised their prices for 2 reasons: 1-Costs have increased 2-They were undercharging. Regarding #2...one day McDonalds realized that there were way more customers than they could possible serve during a meal shift. Lines are always long, and lots of potential customers drive by rather than endure the wait. The obvious reason is that their prices were too low. So McDonalds did the rational business thing: they raised their prices so that they still have enough customers to keep each restaurant operating at 100% capacity. After all, they're not in business to give the stuff away. (It's called The Price Elasticity of Demand.)
I took me some time to figure out if I wanted laser cataract surgery or not, but ended up getting both eyes done with new lens put in each. Before the surgery, I thought my eye doctor had given the wrong prescription to me for glasses. The prescription was correct, it was the cataracts that were taking away my vision. After have the left eye done first, I was totally shocked at what I could see...........true colors of everything! But, I also had to use three different types of eyedrops three times a day in each eye. After the recovery time, I got an eye exam and I was 20/20 vision. Completely/absolutely perfect vision. Both eyes cost us, but Medicare helped. Actually what really cost was the new lens each eye got. I still use reading glasses, at times, to look at my iPhone, by I'm so very grateful that I got both eyes done.
My eyes have a lot of issues since cancer treatment, in particular I have a PVD and a bleed in my right eye. The "floaters" are getting larger and sometimes make me turn my head to see "who is there" when I'm alone in the room. I have the same issue as you with cataracts... my vision is definitely blurrier but they keep saying the cataracts are not "bad enough" for surgery yet. Very frustrating. We have vision insurance that pays a good amount, but it doesn't cover everything. My husband's progressive lenses with photo-gray cost nearly $800 but we paid $290 after insurance. My glasses (also progressive lenses) were $640 but we paid $180. Still a ridiculous amount of money. As far as things being expensive in general, we got a real shock when we bought the truck last month. I don't know how young families can afford a home and a vehicle or two these days. I know that our parents probably said the same thing "back in the day," but stuff is just shockingly expensive now.
Oh, and regarding vehicle insurance... we have full coverage on 2 vehicles and pay about $1200 a year for both. This was a huge reduction after we moved our coverage from Allstate to The Hartford through AARP. We live in the county with the highest rates in Texas so getting a rate that was almost half of Allstate was a real savings. Conversely, AARP/The Hartford could not beat Allstate for our homeowner's insurance. Homeowner's insurance in hurricane zones is really awful.
As for young folks being able to afford things today: We have a friend, little older than us, that has two sons that have their Engineering Degree and make more money than there dad ever did. And, their dad is a retired engineer that work numerous years for Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. His wife, now passed away, was friends with my wife thru high school. Anyway, both sons are married w/kids, have a very nice house, vehicle and work from home for large companies. So, there are young folks out there today that can afford almost anything they want.
From some of the chatter I read, it seems as though there is a greater divide these days than there's ever been (or at least, than there's been in a long time.) Lots of people are struggling, while salaries of $150,000-$200,000 are not uncommon among many others. I've not looked at stats, but I bet the income gap between urban and rural regions is equally (and historically) large. And it's all relative. One guy was lamenting that his household spends over $2,000 in car payments every month. Goodness knows what his mortgage is.
My wife, after getting her AA Degree in Business/Finance, decided to go back to college and get her Bachelors Degree in the same field. Reason why: she found out that she would make a better salary with a Bachelors Degree than with just an AA Degree and she was 100% right.
I wish I had done that. But years of working and going to night classes burned me out. And when I got my AA, the community college was on the Quarter system and not the Semester system, so very few of my credits transferred...I was essentially starting over. I went to a 4 year college at night for a few years, but my entire adult life had been consumed with work/scholl and I burned out.