Watched the show Seinfeld on Netflix for a couple months, which since I was a kid has been one of my favorite shows.
However watching the show in order for the first time, versus reruns, it put an interesting point on George’s character and how he lived for a couple seasons.
George quits his job in season 2, episode 7.
George moves in with his parents in the season 5, episode 2.
He lost his job in April 1991 episode and was still able to live on his own until September 1993.
30 months unemployed living on his own in NYC.
So for a post, I wanted to see how realistic it is he could live that long while being out of work.
First up, how much money would George Costanza have saved?
There’s only one episode any of the characters explicitly say their real age, with the season 3 episode, Stranded, where Jerry says he’s 36.
That was made in 1991, which Jerry Seinfeld was born in 1954 and matching birthdays to release date, he was actually 36 when it came out.
Jason Alexander is actually 5 years younger than Jerry in real life being born in 1959, but due to them being childhood friends, I’m going to run with George Costanza being 36 also, or 35 in season 2 quitting his job.
His job was real estate agent, which has a huge gap, especially in NYC.
The bureau of labor for NYC reported the average realtors salary at $104,000.
That seems high, likely factoring commercial and luxury realtors, where George was middle income residential.
Glassdoor shows the average salary is $87,000 and I’d run with that.
Doing that, let’s make the assumption George started in real estate at age 25 and actually managed to make the average for 10 years, starting in 1981.
Adjusting for inflation, $87,000 in 1981 money would be about a third of what it is today at $28,700 a year.
George was described as very cheap on the show, so I’m going to run with the idea he saved 10% of his salary in the bank every year.
Reason I’m using the 10% number is it is the recommended savings most give and the number Monica’s parents on Friends assumed she saved when fired in season 2.
Running with that, George a decade of pure savings in the bank would have $28,700.
I could factor in interest, which was noticeably higher for money storage in the 1980s, being 16.6% in 1981, but I’ll keep this easy for me and stick to $28,700.
The next thing to look at is unemployment, where George would likely hit the cap. Unemployment is capped at $504 a week currently and I actually couldn’t find the 1991 cap anywhere online.
I’m going to be a little lazy and just cut it in half with inflation and assume he got $252 a week.
That brings us to another Seinfeld episode, where he lost his episode in the iconic, Keith Hernandez episode. Fun fact, due to royalties, Hernandez still makes $5,000 a year off those two episodes he did.
Those episodes came out in February of 1992, which was a little under a year after George quit his job in April 1991.
At 11 months, of $252 a week, George would have made $11,088 on unemployment at that time.
So what George had to work with for 30 months living on his own in NYC was $39,788.
Could he do it?
The big expense is obviously rent.
George’s apartment in the earlier seasons is never actually shown, but he lived in uptown Manhattan, in what we’ll guess is a one bedroom.
Looked at a couple studies and the average for NYC north of Central Park in the early 90s was $1,475 a month.
Already off the bat, George just on rent would be down, because that comes to $44,250. He’d with that savings get 26 months rent.
Food
Insurance
Other basic expenses
He did make $4,000 in season 4 doing the pilot with Jerry, but even with that, it makes the idea he lived 30 months in NYC unemployed sort of tough.
So that’s unrealistic, but this gets me to the point of writing this whole thing.
How long could someone last in NYC today with current rents?
Let’s say a realtor saved 10% of their income in a normal bank account and that came to $87,000.
They also get unemployment, where they’d hit the current cap of $504 weekly. $26,000 for a year.
How long could a person last on $113,000 in NYC, living in uptown Manhattan.
The upper west side, where he’d live currently has a rent of $4,100 a month.
Which for $113,000, would last 27 months.
Amusing find here is I actually would have guessed he’d get far less time today, but that area has always been very expensive and I’m running on 2021 averages, which are down about 20% since COVID.
What was the point of writing all this?
A handful of things.
- A little bored
- Showing the power of savings and how someone in their 30s can be unemployed for over a year and not make huge life changes.
- Get an idea of the economics of NYC.
- Any excuse to make something about Seinfeld, which I have a fairly sick memory of and I’ll take it.