[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Varyon

This comes back to the issue of CoL being invariant - Status 0 at TL 0 gets you a lot less (objectively) than Status 0 at TL 12, but both have the same pricetag.

Given that there is a lot less to buy at TL0 than at TL12, and all of it is of inferior quality, I don't see the problem.

There can be room to say that living expenses at TL 0 are harder to meet (a greater percentage of income) than they are at TL 12, even though at TL 12 Status 0 is worth so much more, but the difference in GURPS - CoL being 96% of income at TL 0 and <6% of income at TL 12 - seems a bit on the excessive side.

"A bit on the excessive side" means "I don't quite agree with the numbers," not "the system doesn't work."

I don't have a problem with those numbers. Cavemen spend all their working time just to subsist. Starfarers work a full-time job, and most of their cash goes to entertainment, vehicles, travel, whatever they like. For adventurers, most of the extra cash will go toward heaps of adventuring equipment. This is what the system is trying to do.

Why can't an Average Wealth, Status 0 citizen of a TL12 society spend their $10,600/month wages on a Status 4 Cost of Living? They can! If their society cares about things like Status, then they'll trigger the consequences of living above their station as given on page B265. If they live in a classless meritocracy, then there might be no consequences to living a Status 4 lifestyle, and everyone of Average Wealth will do it. They'll still be Status 0, unless they have ways of getting more Status, and won't be able to influence people with their high Status, because they won't have any. (If everyone has a fancy car and fancy clothes, then you can't drive up in your fancy car in your fancy clothes to impress on everyone that you're in charge here.)

Regardless, the Advantage "Doesn't Have to Work" doesn't seem like it should cost more at lower TL's (anymore than Doesn't Sleep, Doesn't Eat or Drink, etc would), but if using Independent Income, it does

There is no such advantage as "Doesn't Have to Work." Independent Income is not the "doesn't have to work" advantage. Independent Income is the "extra cash without needing a job to get it" advantage. I think this is at the heart of your difficulty with this. The point of Independent Income is not to support your Cost of Living in place of a job; the point is just to have a source of income other than a job. What you do with that extra income is up to you. How that extra income compares with your Cost of Living is irrelevant.