[fasthandle]

Germany's a hard comparison, but anyway...

Fist, SF salaries are high as is cost of living. Perhaps compare to Dallas. Or even Toronto.

Then there's social insurance aka pension. A SE in the US I'd assume to have healthcare (caveat - as long as in employment). An in terms of private investment such as stocks, the German stock market is quite different from the US one in terms of composition (as companies raising funds tend to use different means) hence future asset-liability matching. And a fair bit harder to do your own company (and VC funding) in Germany due to 'esoteric' tax requirements for companies (including but not limited to needing to pay tax in advance).