[bruce511]

Context matters. You take home more than just money. In most of Europe you take home free, or nearly free, health care, education and so on. In the USA you take home a strong military. And that's before we consider local cost of living.

Comparing take-home £ in isolation is almost meaningless - it doesn't equate to disposable income after expenses - or what that disposable income can buy.

IOW making 200k in SF is less than say 50K in Milan. (numbers made up)

[dakiol]

This is not exactly correct but almost. I Europe expect around 40% percent of your gross salary to be gone in taxes. Health insurance is not 100% free (e.g., you go to the doctor and he prescribes you some pills. You have to pay for those pills yourself. Sure the doctor doesn't charge you for the hour). Education is not 100% free. For example, in Germany it would cost you around 400 Euro per semester to get enrolled in a public University).

So, for everybody to know: a salary of, let's say, 70K in Germany for a single person (tax group 1) living in the west would translate to around 3300 euros per month after taxes.

[indigo945]

    > Health insurance is not 100% free (e.g., you go to the
    > doctor and he prescribes you some pills. You have to 
    > pay for those pills yourself. Sure the doctor
    > doesn't charge you for the hour).

Just to be clear, the pills are still often subsidized and very cheap where they are not. It is uncommon to have medical expenses of more than 30€ per visit even for cosmetic concerns.

Also important to note that most of the fee of 300€ per semester of university pays for a public transport ticket which allows you to take busses and trams in the city where your university is located and usually also trains within your Bundesland.

[bruce511]

cunningly I covered myself by saying "most of" and "nearly" :)

You are correct, it's "free" only for a loose definition of "free" - but I think the point (when compared to say US health and education) stands...