I spend a lot of time in NYC working and it is social Darwinism at work in that City. You pay $2-3 Million for a small townhouse just outside Manhattan and even more in Manhattan, you pay $51,000 a year tuition for each child in private day school-- not boarding (the article has it right)--that is if they can get in (and if you can show that you will contribute big bucks to the school like the hedge fund officer trying to get his kids in instead of yours). You pay for a nanny to care for your kids while you work long hours making the big bucks. My cousins in Palo Alto and Mountain View say it is the same way in Silicon Valley-- you and your wife may make $2 Million a year if you time those options right, but you pay a $1 Million for everything which may not include housing.