Much appreciated!
We came back to Milwaukee because of job relocation. Also, Boston is wicked expensive!

All major cities are expensive, relatively speaking. That's the price of civilization.

But the pay should be relative, no?
A 1 bedroom apartment went for $3,000 a month in a BAD part of New York City, but salaries were 3 or 4 times the amount than in other parts of the country. You can get a much better place, 3 times the size in Myrtle Beach, SC but then you realize WHY they are so low.

Should is the keyword. In many cases the increase in pay isn't enough for the increased cost of living. For example, according to Yahoo!'s cost of living index, Boston is 27% more expensive than an average city. However, the minimum wage for Boston (Massachusetts), $8 per hour, is only about 10% more than the federal minimum, which is $7.25. Honolulu is even worse. The cost of living there is a whopping 88% more than average yet they're stuck with the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Well there's Walmart's minimum wage, then there's professional minimum wage. My friend is an electrical engineer, and he could make $105,000 a year in NYC doing the SAME exact thing he's doing now in Florida for $45,000. My other friend moved to North Carolina to work for Redhat (he was one of the coders for the OLPC, and he made MORE there than when he worked in St Louis, Missouri at their branch there. Dallas and Houston's salaries are WAY up now too. I dont know why these things occur though

I'm from Hong Kong, where buildings with less than 20 floors is considered low.

I think Texas was actually doing well during the recession. Good for them.


Now that's a concrete jungle!
I've always wanted to visit Hong Kong...

Me too, but I flew to both Tibet and Burma around 18 years ago, and those 24 hour flights are STILL in my trauma zone

I am 1/2 Vietnamese, 1/4 Teochew and 1/4 Cantonese but was born in Indonesia and grew up and am still residing in Australia. I live in a suburb about 15 minutes drive from the rather small CBD in the world's most isolated city with over a million residents (Perth, Western Australia). Apparently it's the third most expensive city to live in Australia with a population of 1.65 million and a per capita income of about $AUD 60,000 (~$USD 56,000) and is amongst the world's most liveable cities according surveys (equal 4th). It's funny how people from the eastern states say we are poor and dull though I agree with the second.

Where in Indonesia?

And given your diverse background, do you know any other heritage languages besides Vietnamese?