If it's a sporting event or concert and you need to drive $50 is pretty easy to hit. Major downtowns are solidly $40 on a regular night out if you can't find a meter (which is capped at 2 hours and a parking ticket costs you $50). If you have two cars because not everyone is coming from the same place you're completely hosed.
Going to the movies costs my family $100 without concessions. The zoo $80, the aquarium $100, art museum $80. There's a decent public park system but we're often the only ones there. McDonalds doesn't have playplaces anymore, sleepovers barely exist. The nearest bowling alley is 30 minutes away and runs us about $60 an hour without food.
Add food to anything (which most places don't allow from outside) and you're sometimes doubling the price for complete trash.
Some people live on a different planet.. The last social event I did (last night) I took the train to their house which cost me $5 return, and we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant where I got a Chicken Katsu for $17AUD. This social event cost me not much more than if I had sat at home and ate dinner normally.
If it's a sporting event or concert and you need to drive $50 is pretty easy to hit. Major downtowns are solidly $40 on a regular night out if you can't find a meter (which is capped at 2 hours and a parking ticket costs you $50). If you have two cars because not everyone is coming from the same place you're completely hosed.
Going to the movies costs my family $100 without concessions. The zoo $80, the aquarium $100, art museum $80. There's a decent public park system but we're often the only ones there. McDonalds doesn't have playplaces anymore, sleepovers barely exist. The nearest bowling alley is 30 minutes away and runs us about $60 an hour without food.
Add food to anything (which most places don't allow from outside) and you're sometimes doubling the price for complete trash.
I assume this is attributed to valet and tipping.
Neither of which are required for traveling into a city
Some of it is. But those are often mandatory expenses. A lot of places only offer valet parking, and not tipping makes you look like an asshole.
Some people live on a different planet.. The last social event I did (last night) I took the train to their house which cost me $5 return, and we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant where I got a Chicken Katsu for $17AUD. This social event cost me not much more than if I had sat at home and ate dinner normally.
As others have mentioned, wealth inequality, even comparing the top 10% to the 30% paints a very different picture.