Everything Costs the Same

Over the past five years, the number of regions of the country in which I have lived and number of global regions which I have visited has increased at an exponential pace.  Commencement ended, and I commenced my move from the historical and geographical center of the Western world to a city of undeniable economic prowess. In the interim, I found myself in a somewhat attractive if sterile city, then an incredibly beautiful city to which I only prefer Boston's history and geographic location (and I will argue public education as well), and subsequently would find myself in a city lost in its own reverie.

What I've come to conclude is that, to me anyway, everything costs the same.  I'm not talking about the traditional idea of purchasing power parity.  I'm talking holistically about the idea that the money one spends on a home is not exclusively confined to one's "property," but the overall environs in which one lives, perhaps a "cost per unit city," whereby one might proffer the material possession of a two car garage in exchange for access to Picadilly Circus. When I bought my condo, I bought not only the floors on which I put my bed, but the city into which I step each morning.  I bought the subway that takes me to my favorite coffeeshop.  I bought a tiny piece of the local culture, of the history and the proximity to destinations such as Japan.  I bought the reality that I am finally again living close to a place with some semblance of beaux arts in spots that could almost pass for a New York block to a foreigner.  I bought the distressed masonry.  For better or for worse, I bought the public school system. I didn't buy a condo; I bought a piece of Los Angeles.

No amount of money I could have spent in Houston would allow me to exit my door in the morning and find halcyon introspection.  The cost of living is not lower; houses are cheaper. One must differentiate. And there's really nothing wrong with that.  Every city exists to serve a purpose (well, except Las Vegas), and I'm not saying everything has to be one way or another.  But current cost of living indices are too simple and outdated to be useful, and should really not be used as a valid tool.  Really.