Dancers have often raised questions about pursuing higher earnings possibilities in big city clubs. As the following graphic emphatically illustrates, this is a 'two edged sword' ...
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Dancers have often raised questions about pursuing higher earnings possibilities in big city clubs. As the following graphic emphatically illustrates, this is a 'two edged sword' ...
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Yeah but who would want to live in Harlingen ,Texas vs. NYC ?





^^^ obviously, there is a reason that many people are willing to pay the much higher prices associated with living in NYC and other major cities.
My point was directed to dancers, who are often 'bedazzled' by the much higher potential earnings available in NYC clubs ( actually many major cities ) versus their nearby club in "Harlingen TX" ( or hundreds of other smaller cities ), but who fail to realize that structural differences in relative costs of living are likely to consume a big portion of those higher potential earnings.
Also, from where I am 'sitting' way south of the border, the costs of living in Harlingen TX look expensive !!!
Here are some important numbers:
New York City: $56,951
Wage per hour: $27.28
Harligen, TX:$35,267
Wage per hour: $16.89
The median household income numbers are from Census.gov and are for 2011.
To get the wage I figured income/ working 5 days a week (261)/ 8 hour workday= Wage per hour.
Obviously not everyone works an 8 hour day, but, considering most jobs are fast food or retail nowadays, I figured it would be fair to compare. Obviously, There is more to it than numbers. Harligen is about 1/2 an hour from Mexico, 2 hours south of Corpus Christi (the closest big city). If you are a camgirl, not a problem. They work from home and just need a reliable internet connection. As a dancer, you have 2 clubs in town or 9 clubs to choose from in Corpus Christi (closest big city). Is it worth a 2hour+ drive? Probably not. In New York, there is (most likely) better internet. Better for camgirls. And you have 13 clubs to choose from. One would have to weigh the possibility of how many activities are available, schools, taxes, safety etc.










$218,554 for a house? In Harlingen? That’s crazy. I don’t live in Harlingen but a 2,800 SF house on 4 acres with barns and outbuildings cost us about half that.





$1.3million for a home in Manhattan is pushing it. A girl could live in Brooklyn, buy a 3 bedroom condo in Bed-Stuy for $300k, which rivals the Harlingen TX home that is $218k. All she has to do is subway it to her club and cab it home. Same cost as gas would probably be driving to and from the club in texas.





Here's another article ... ... which shows Brooklyn NY having the second highest costs of living of the 307 cities included in their survey.
I found this detailed statement which includes housing cost methodology ... ... which appears to be based on purchase cost of a NEW 2400 sq. ft. home + 30 year fixed rate mortgage financing costs at the prevailing local interest rate + presumably other mandated mortgage costs like homeowner's insurance premiums. Property tax costs etc. are specifically NOT included.
you might want to recalculate the after tax income that results from these two Census based gross income figures. The calculation for TX will be easy since you won't have to add a ~7% NY state income tax or a ~2% NY City income tax on top of the federal income tax. And due to the progressive federal income tax rates, the probable rate on the $57k in NY will be ~18%, while the probable rate on the $35k in TX will be ~13%. Thus the difference in actual after-tax income levels is probably closer to $10k than $20k !!!New York City: $56,951
Wage per hour: $27.28
Harligen, TX:$35,267
Wage per hour: $16.89
The median household income numbers are from Census.gov and are for 2011.
To get the wage I figured income/ working 5 days a week (261)/ 8 hour workday= Wage per hour.
Again, the survey specifically avoids the issue of relative tax rates for both property taxes and income taxes ... but they are a major real world factor !!!
Last edited by Melonie; 09-10-2013 at 02:25 PM.





Who even needs that much space though? I would be scared living in a place that size. Some people prefer condos and small spaces. I know I do.
Also, 2 things you didn't consider:
- In TX you need a car. That means car payment, car insurance, maintenance & repairs, gas, paying for parking maybe? In NYC, all you need is a monthly metro pass and cabs.
- If you are living in NYC, chances are you will have a spouse or roommate who also makes a large salary to split things with. Odds are, you wouldn't find nearly that large of a salary in TX.





^^^ all true ... but flip side arguments would be that Texas camgirls don't need a car either, that roommates in Texas would also reduce relative costs of living via cost-sharing etc. The study and original graphic make use of a certain specific set of conditions for comparing relative costs of living. Granted that deviating from that set of conditions affects the dollar level of costs ... but it doesn't necessarily alter the ratio of resulting costs in the two different cities under similar ( non-study ) conditions.
If TX is putting you off, consider that Memphis TN is fifth from the bottom of the 307 city list, with a coli value of 86 vs 82 in Harlingen TX vs 225 in Manhattan and 179 in Brooklyn ( from my link story above ). Memphis has decent public transportation and 'big city' amenities. And like TX, TN doesn't levee a state or local income tax either.
In terms of a personal comment, I also lived in Manhattan for a while - and found it to be the best place in the world to live in. However, once I took a serious look at the relative costs of living, the relative income tax rates etc. and my resulting low rate of personal savings, I quickly moved 'across the river' to North Jersey ... and took the commuter train into and out of Manhattan on a near daily basis to avoid having to spend money on a car. As a result of that decision, and the resulting vast increase in my personal savings rate made possible by significantly lower costs of living and significantly lower personal income tax rates, today I'm retired and don't need to worry about how I'm going to earn a living after dancing. Had I stayed in Manhattan I definitely could not have afforded to retire due to lack of personal savings.
I also found a much more complete list of cities versus C2ER's coil values at ... ... which also shows that living in North Jersey isn't the 'bargain' that it was 10 years ago !!!
Again, my purpose in posting this thread was to bring to dancers' attention the LARGE differences in costs of living that exist in Manhattan ( and most other big cities with high dancer income potential ) versus their own home cities. The implied point was that, while they may indeed earn a s#!tload more money in a Manhattan ( or other high dancer income potential big city ), they won't get to 'keep' all that much of it !!!
Last edited by Melonie; 09-10-2013 at 03:38 PM.
Ya, it would all boil down to personal preference. While I miss living on the east coast, I LOVE paying less money for ALL of my bills in the midwest than my total rent was. No matter where we are though, city life will always cost more than a more rural life.
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