How bad is the cost of living in NYC? I know real estate is much more expensive but is everythng else as well?

I ask because on FB a friend of mine was rambling on about how rough it was in the law profession. This is the case evidently even for people like him who went to a top tier law school and joined a Big Law firm where the starting salary is $160K. And my friend is far beyond a first year associate. He's on partner track. shhh

So I pointed out that a starting salary of $160K is nothing to complain about whereupon someone else claimed that in a "primary city like New York" $160K isn't very much at all. I responded that that salary put you in the top 2% of all salary earners in the US and if someone couldn't do well on that amount of cash the problem might be more with their spending and less with their income. And then things got ugly.. lol whistle

But I am curious to know, especially from people who have lived in NYC and lived elsewhere, is someone earning $160K doing pretty well for themselves in NYC, especially if they have no kids or spouse?

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.