You can laugh all you want, but 160K is not a lot of money here for a family assuming you don’t already own a home. 160K for a young, single tech worker is a different story since they can share an apartment and expenses with others. The real estate prices are insane. And some of us were born here, have extended family here, and aren’t really looking to move away. Oh, and as for health insurance, we pay more than $1K/month not including our $75 copay to see a doctor and our prescription drugs (and yes, this is three times what we were paying a few years ago.) And that is an employer based program. This is just not a cheap place to live.
I think many people who have been here a long time have no idea what it’s like for someone to move here and try to find a place to live. We bought a long time ago, but would have trouble finding a home today. I know plenty of people who buy in the East Bay and try to commute, but the commute is horrendous and they complain that their commute is too stressful. Salary is all relative depending on cost of living, although I’ll agree that whoever is complaining at $700K a year is being ridiculous.