> do you think that this insight simply hasn't occurred to him?
There's this duality where we appreciate there are many out there who truly cannot downsize their lifestyle to accommodate, and we should sympathize. But of the people I know personally in these scenarios, all of them could easily budget better. And again, in my personal experience, its always a pretty simple evaluation and decision. Its deeply frustrating to see someone I know complaining about how tight things are, but then buying a better car than me, better computer than me, better phone than me. Going out to eat all the time. Etc ad infinitum. So while certainly there are factors outside our controls, I'd wager a lot that the average high salary earners (e.g., HN crowd) do have simple budgeting choices they aren't making. I won't presume much about OP, this is mostly in response to your comment about it being condescending. It is. But, in reality, for many and perhaps most high earners, it really is simple, and sometimes people do need to be called out to realize it.
