An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point.

[DFW]

37. Spot on!

My US based daughter lives in Manhattan. Most of her net income, after Federal, NY state and NY City taxes, goes for child care for her two sons. Her husband’s salary is what pays for food, mortgage on the apartment, clothes, utilities, etc. They have no fancy electronic devices (I still haven’t seen a TV in there). If either one were to lose their job, it would be a major catastrophe. They were only able to buy their apartment because they bought when the first wave of Covid hit, and many New Yorkers were having distress sales to get out of the City.

Even our younger daughter, who makes a lot of money, doesn’t always have round-the-clock child care when she needs it. Last Wednesday, when I was over in Sprout City, my wife went down to Königstein (near Frankfurt) to pick up her two daughters, ages 5 and 7, to stay with us in Düsseldorf until today, since both my daughter and her husband, who work for the same firm, had to be in London this weekend, and couldn’t take the girls with them or leave them home by theirselves. My wife is bringing them back down there this afternoon.