There are cost of living calculators that give very basic averages of areas. I can tell when I lived in NC I paid about 30$ for car insurance. But when I lived in Detroit MI I payed about 300$. Monthly. That was about 7-8 years ago. Apartments in my small little town in PA are going for about 1500-1800$ for a 1 bedroom apartment. For healthcare I pay about 200$ a week. That’s for a family of 3.

That’s a large portion of it yes. Don’t forget that 150k salary is before taxes. The cost of food has sky rocketed lately. Don’t forget transportation. If you live in a big city you might take a bus or Metro, but for most Americans there isn’t a good network so add gas, car insurance, and possibly a car payment if you don’t own. And if you have kids get ready for child care expenses, unless you have a stay at home parent… But then you only have one income. Rent, utilities, little glasses for Timmy, cell phone bills and those TV subscriptions you’re slowly sailing the high seas on as they nickel and dime you. It all adds up.

This is correct and something I learned about recently. The style of a lot of middle eastern type clothing is all very loose and baggy for both men and women, because of that, the color of the clothing doesn’t affect it’s heat intake. It’s thought that a lot of clothing styles came to be because of what was available to use to weave them. If I’m remembering correct, the desert areas had a lot of wool to work with. Wool is an insulator… So in order to wear it in that climate they wove it very loose with a lot of layers and baggyness. I’m not an expert on the matter though, so I might be mistaken