New York is a bargain bin of organic peanut butter cups and Fire Island nights for the 300,000 or so who earn more than $100K a year. The rest of us (you know, the ones who in fact wield power through suffrage) feel every debit card swipe like a garrote. So after the ATM fees, the broker's fees, the monthly MetroCards, the $5 boxes of cereal and $8 bottles of contact solution, how much is the paycheck of a Normal New Yorker actually worth?

NPR's Planet Money (not the most hospitable-sounding celestial body) took a giant data set from the federal government released last month and found that making $37,064 in New York actually "feels like" making $28,799, when you account for our cost-of-living.

Indeed, the government data show that the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area had one of the highest regional price parities in the country—goods and services cost around 22% more here than anywhere else.

Washington D.C. and San Francisco fared worse. You could move to Danville, Illinois, where $30,079 feels like $35,973. And there's always Cleveland.