San Jose Reddit users: You can't live here on an $85,000 salary!

Considering all the tales of "scraping by" from people making six figures in the Bay Area, what do you make of someone wondering if he should move here for a job with an $80,000-$85,000 salary?

Basically, he's insane.

That was the word Mike from Florida got when he was looking for advice on Reddit recently. He was about to have a second interview for a job in San Jose and wanted to know if South Bay folks thought it was even worth pursuing. One response from "TeqTime" pretty much summed it up:

"Not a good idea. Stay in Florida."

As people gave their various reasons why Mike should not come to the Bay Area, no matter how much he bemoaned Florida's "ignorance and lack of culture," it became clear how hard life has become for the middle class around here.

First, the group broke down the cost of renting the 3-bedroom Mike desired for himself, his wife, two sons and 3 dogs. Reddit user "Michichael" said:

"You literally won't be able to live here. My husband and I have a house like that and are paying 4500/mo in rent... and that's a MASSIVE deal. Everything else we saw (the dogs were the big piece) was 5500/mo+; that's 66kyr of your post-tax income."

Photo: FILE PHOTO Photo: FILE PHOTO Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close San Jose Reddit users: You can't live here on an $85,000 salary! 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

And if Mike wants to commute from outside San Jose, here's what "bobcat116" had to tell him:

"My friend commutes from Santa Cruz to Mountain View everyday and it's becoming a 90 minute commute each way. Morgan Hill and Gilroy are affordable, but the commute is BRUTAL."

RELATED: San Francisco has the worst commute in the US.

The message for Mike should be worrisome for the Bay Area. Applicants for positions in other fields that pay in this range -- e.g. government, academia, elementary education, law enforcement -- could become severely narrowed to those already settled here and the young and single. Which has led to a new kind of problem in the San Jose area:

3 San Jose schools to close as enrollment shrinks

In the end, Mike decided to stay in Florida: "Thanks to everyone that contributed with their advice. I did end up turning down the interview. As much as I was intrigued by the offer and relocation there is no way to make the financials work."

Well there may have been one if Mike considered two words from "PirateGrievous":

"So Stockton?"