[badpun]

Not hugely so. Properties in top cities in Europe are probably as expensive as in top areas of US (NYC, SV). Rent is higher in US (that's because, if landlords charged SV/NYC rents in Europe, then the flats would just be empty, as the rent would be more than 100% of salaries of most people), but mortgage is comparable. Other typical cost of living expenses are somewhat higher in US (according to https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...). Salaries, on the other hand, are massively higher in US than in Europe.

[legacynl]

I don't agree.

You get higher wages in the US, but you also have to pay more in the US. Healthcare (or saving money for when you need healthcare), schools, having to drive everywhere, etc.

In most of western Europe you don't actually need that high salary. There are no crazy medical bills, your children can go to school for free, you don't have to spend a couple of bucks for gas for every errand.

Also i think your comparison is a bit skewed because afaik Paris and New-York are famously expensive. I think using this comparison is more realistic: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

[0xBDB]

I live in the Dallas area. A typical salary in my corner of tech is 150k. That's about 30 percent in income taxes. Sales tax, etc. is (more or less) deductible from that. Like all of the 92 percent of Americans with health insurance, my annual out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare is capped, in my case at 10k. 2 years of community college and 2 years of state school for my kid will probably run about 60k, one-time. Love your rail networks, but a "couple of bucks for gas" here isn't a liter; that will get me 2/3 of a gallon which is 30 miles in a Honda Civic, which is 10 errands.

If I moved to London for example the salary would be at most 100k (U.S. equivalent; I've looked), 50% would be tax, and while your site tells me that overall cost of living is only about 5% higher, I find that highly improbable. I am not disputing that the peace of mind factor in Europe is worth something. I don't think there's any reasonable price you could ascribe to it to make the math work out for even a single year, let alone a career, however.