Philly makes it into the positive end of a list...

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...rning-a-Living

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

and they recognize washington for what it is, a place that specializes in wasting other people's money.

Interesting that both of PA's major cities made the top 10. You wonder what some basic reforms (and some corp tax rate cutting) coudl do here. When I visited Milwaukee it really struck me as a place you coud have a pretty high QOL with a lot less money than most places.

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

Amen to that.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

Forget about it DCnPhilly.......it's just Forbes, credibility zero.

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Forget it Jake……It’s CHINATOWN!

Of course. How could it have cred? They gave us a positive rank. Yet whenever some checkout aisle trash of the same caliber says we're fat, depressed, or ugly it's the word of god.

I lapsed into an accidental bout of optimism. I forgot where I was.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

Looking at the list, it may be the best places to EARN a living, but not the best places to have a standard of living.

I can't imagine living in New York on what we make now.

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Peace Out, Philly!

Right. But half a million dollars in New York buys you a closet, here it buys you a big, fat house. We make less, but get more for our money. We can afford to have a higher standard of living. There are obviously larger, more cultured cities out there, so whether those Philadelphians who can afford a higher standard of living also choose a higher quality of living is up to them. They may have to do a little leg work. I think this list is looking at figures that point to Philadelphia's potential.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

Cost of living was related to median income, thus blunting its effect on the overall ranking, and another large component of the ranking was the number of companies on two Forbes lists -- 400 Best Large Companies and 200 Best Small Companies -- headquartered in each city.

The article notes that San Francisco places 7th on the list precisely because of the concentration of high-tech businesses in Silicon Valley, which is part of the Bay Area metropolitan region. Certainly the cost of living in the area would not recommend such high placement.

Now, for the glass-half-empty/glass-half-full details, here's what the Forbes item said about #10 Philadelphia:

Our cost of living is low relative only to our peers in the Northeast (and also the big cities on the West Coast, Seattle excluded). Your dollar would go a good bit further in #1 Houston, #6 Milwaukee, or any of a number of large cities in the country's interior.

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Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
"Jazz and blogging are both intimate, improvisational, and individual -- but also inherently collective. And the audience talks over both." --Andrew Sullivan, "Why I Blog," The Atlantic, November 2008

It's a strange ranking

Cost of living in Columbus is about 25% less than Philly and the job market is much better.

However, it's a "city in a cornfield" with little culture short of a single University.

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Peace Out, Philly!

culture can be a big thing when it comes to quality of life. for something more objective, such as plenty of high-paying jobs in engineering (my field), plenty of cheap real estate ($250k here buys you a mansion), and having to pay no city or state income tax, dallas or houston are far better bets. but for some subjective matters such as having access to more art and "culture", being among more progressives, and having more and diverse access to higher education, I like Philly because it is cheaper than NYC, Boston, and D.C...it has many of the attrbutes of those cities but is a better bargain, IMO.

Just imagine how much more appealing the city would be were it to slash its stupid and arbitrary taxes and make life easier to live for middle class and above. MSL puts it nicely that Philly is barely competitive only in its neighborhood of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic big cities. When comparing with other fast-growing cities, Philly loses appeal to many companies because cost of living is too high and economic growth is anemic probably due to taxes.

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Is it ghey that I love this song so much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_Wc6Nm8lc

I guess you could say I'm not as jaded about "stuff" such as enduring love yet...