What if you are married with children? Not sure about you, but I would definitely not feel comfortable having roommates in my 1.5BR. With me + wife + 5yo son + 2yo daughter, how would the logistics even work? -- where would the roommates sleep? In the kitchen? In the kids' bedroom? In our bedroom with my wife and me?
That is admittedly a tougher situation - my comment was geared towards someone making 100k as this post's theme has been "technical workers".
Your situation is definitely tough and would probably mean having to live way out of the bay area and commute to work.
I mainly reacted to OP saying it wasn't possible. How can you say that when people commute from Vallejo into the city everyday wasting 3 hours a day so that they can provide for their family?
It's hard, but to complain that it isn't possible is especially unnerving since if you are a tech worker you're probably in the class of people for whom it's the most reachable.
Let me give you a different perspective on this -- yes, it is possible. Heck, even living on 10k is possible -- you could put up a tent and live in that. You could live in a camp ground. One could even forage for wild berries for sustenance. Almost anything is possible if one is to split hairs...
Except it isn't what most tech workers expected. The vast majority of tech workers I know have sacrificed a lot and work very hard. Many paid top dollar to go to top schools. They spent their entire 20s working nights and weekends to learn as much as they could. I spent college studying red black trees instead of going to frat parties. I still spend parts of my weekend just keeping up with technology. So me and my friends find it difficult to swallow that despite all this, we struggle to have even a sliver of what our parents enjoyed almost as an American right. Yes, it is better than what people have in Africa or Detroit, but it isnt what many people expected. Yes, it is better than what baristas get, but it isnt what people expected.
As for me, I've lived in NYC most of my life and there are few building restrictions. So while it is expensive, it isnt as absurd as the bay area. I also yearn to build things, but spent much of my career trying to squeeze more $ out of trading algos...mostly because it supported a better lifestyle.
Obviously low interest rates, tax policies, and poor land usage is to blame for a lot in the bay area. But whatever the reasons, step back and consider a world where people with Top-5 university degrees in computer science and illustrious careers are told to keep random strangers as roommates with their 2yo and 5yo children...
It's harder than we expected, but not impossible. To say you can barely get by with your 120k salary when there are people getting by on 40k is offensive.
Believe me, I know what it's like to be banging your head against the desk at 1AM on a Friday night while your friends are out partying. But I also know what it's like to see a family work hard to provide for their kids in some of the poorest neighborhoods in California.
They too work hard and it's a disservice to them who try their best to make it work to say that it's impossible on a 100k salary.
We should raise the bar for everyone - but that bar starts with them, not with tech workers. This is why you get protests for Google buses, sometimes the points people are making here come across as tone deaf.
This is one thing I can't stand about the Bay Area. Roommates are for college kids. It is not normal to be 30 years old, making over 100k, and living with roommates. But everyone I know lives like this, including myself.
What if you are married with children? Not sure about you, but I would definitely not feel comfortable having roommates in my 1.5BR. With me + wife + 5yo son + 2yo daughter, how would the logistics even work? -- where would the roommates sleep? In the kitchen? In the kids' bedroom? In our bedroom with my wife and me?