Wealth, Status, Cost of Living, and different states (in 2100)

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

I'm reading pages 36-37 of Changing Times, and I'm puzzled by the money rules in THS.
As you probably know, an Average (in all senses) TL8 person earns about $3,600 a month, and spends 16% of it on Cost of Living. A Wealthy Status 2 TL8 citizen earns about $18,000 a month, and spends the same 16% on Cost of Living.

However, in THS, according to CT, things seem to be much worse.
In an average state, an Average (in all senses) person earns about the same $3,600 . . . and wastes a whopping 50% of it on Cost of Living.

In a wealthy state, an Average (in all senses) person earns $6,000 . . . and has to pay 120% of earned income to cover Cost of Living.
Now, one could look at a Wealthy Status 2 person living in a wealthy state. That's $30,000 a month, but Status 2 CoL is $24,000 - still 80% of income.

For comparison, a TL5 historical human spends about 55% income on CoL, and a TL4 spends 75%, and a TL0 spends 96%.

So, not only does Changing Times break the GURPS rule that a GURP$ is normalised to 1/600th of CoL in the setting, but it also results in incomes that are extremely low compared to basic expenditures, even compared to early industrial age, let alone modern age. And finally, it sometimes produces outright pathological cases, such as when an average person can't support oneself as an average person at all.

What gives?
Thanks in advance!