Some of the most common posts on here are about high housing and high electric rates (and I'd add high water rates). Buffalo has the same electric company as I have here (National Grid), yet their rate is 70% less than here. Everyone is on Natural Gas rather than the number of people here who use oil, far better for the environment.

The fact that Buffalo voted for Biden at a lower rate than Boston, doesn't help me much when my electric bill is three times more in MA, and my house costs more than a mansion in Buffalo.

And I'd really suggest someone like you lives in a place like Buffalo. If your view of America is you need generational wealth to be happy, it's because you are in the bubble of everything being overly expensive.

My friends in Buffalo, are all happy and live very comfortably. Even without a college degree, I have one friend that just built a house that could be in a magazine with the most over the top outdoor pavilion I've ever seen.

Another friend who moved there for college and decided to stay, works in a call center, has a nice house, actually his second one and rents the first one, so he owns two homes on a call center salary and is able to raise his three kids who do all the kids sports, and they have a jet ski and belong to the yacht club.... On a call center salary.

Another one works for the federal government, not overly paid, but him and his teacher husband have a fully remodeled home, 3 new cars, every outdoor lawn and snow tool you could imagine, and are well funded for retirement with all the savings from living in a place that's cheap.

I have a family member who lives in a smaller city in NY, not Buffalo, but works at a copy place for $16 an hour and owns a home.

I think just living in MA you have a skewed view of what middle class is, that things are unattainable. That's just here and San Francisco. Most of the country still has rich local culture, and the ability to own a home.