Sometimes I just don't know... It's nice to work in the US for a lot of things - money first and foremost. But San Jose is also a good example of what's unpleasant about the US. Even a small town in Italy has (at least) an order of magnitude more character and interesting things, rather than sameness and right angles. It's difficult if not impossible to attach a monetary value to, but I think there are definitely some externalities involved in living in a beautiful place, that at least for some people, compensate for the other things that are wrong.

lol speak for yourself :) I live in the midwest, San Jose is like an art masterpiece compared to here

depends on where in the midwest you are. I'm in michigan and routinely visit Chicago for work.Chicago isn't bad at all; but I've been to the valley a few times and it doesn't compare.

I agree - thats why I live in the very beautiful (on an international scale) San Francisco :)

blah blah blah

The 500,000 population threshold combined with the use of "median household income" is what makes this interesting.

Newton, MA has a MHI of $86,000 but its population is more like 84,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton,_Massachusetts

The 500,000 population limit rules out lots of suburbs and use of the median eliminates diverse cities with wealthy neighborhoods. I'm not immediately sure what use of "median household" vs. "median individual" means, since I'm not sure what counts as a household. (do 4 young professionals crammed into a small house in Cambridge count as one household?)