I just read something that made me think about the situation in Los Angeles. It turns out that now the state government considers a person to be poor if they earn less than $84,850 a year. Yes, less than $85,000. For a family of three, the threshold is $109,050. Seems absurd, right?

The reason is quite clear: housing costs have become completely unsustainable. Over the past 12 years, about 200,000 apartments renting for less than a thousand dollars have disappeared. Meanwhile, the average price of a home in the region already exceeds one million dollars. And we're not talking about luxury properties, but normal houses.

What's interesting is that this crisis isn't exclusive to Los Angeles. San Diego, Orange County, and Santa Barbara face similar situations. In those counties, the low-income threshold has risen from $92,000 to $98,000 annually. It's practically the same story.

Financial analysts are pointing out something that seems important to me: that $100,000 figure, once synonymous with success and financial security, no longer suffices to live decently in many major U.S. cities. In fact, in 25 of the country's 100 largest cities, that income doesn't even cover basic expenses.

This reflects an increasingly deepening gap between what is considered economically viable and the reality of the market. Poverty in Los Angeles and other U.S. metropolises is being redefined because traditional parameters simply stopped working. It's a reminder that economic metrics need to be constantly updated to reflect the reality people are living.