It's really expensive, yes. But honestly, another significant part of it is that the way of life of some americans is crazy.
I'm considered a spender among my peers, and even I am amazed when I discuss with american friends, watching the money they throw away.
Most of them have huge food budget: they never cook and eat outside all the time. They have so many recurring payments for so many services. They spend tons money to refund a student load for a degree they never finished, or a mortage on a car or credit cards fees. Cigarets, alcohol, weed, then various kinds of meds.
Some of them have several generations of console, one PC, and changed their phone every 2 years for the last decade.
When I visited the USA with my father (he worked for an airline), we always ended the trip with flipping through garbages in nice neighbourhoods. Once we found a printer. Another time we found a tennis racket.
So when they tell me they are having a hard time with money, it's not easy to be compassionate.
I know there are people working 3 jobs, living paycheck to paycheck and eating junk food to survive. But they are not coders in the valley.
House prices are often even higher in Europe, relative to wages. Check prices in London or Paris to see: you get smaller apartments, smaller houses on smaller lots than in US, and you’ll pay larger percentage of your paycheck for them.
I looked into Paris and the 19th looks very reasonably priced and apex civilized to me. (I've walked all over it.) A two bedroom for say €2000-2500/m with easy access to the Metro. Am I wrong? I was surprised when I looked at the prices, maybe my sources are inaccurate. But then I discovered Montpellier :-), half as expensive.
I've lived in Atlanta, Phoenix and SF/MV/Santa Clara, and no, none of those come close to the quality of life for the money. For reference I live in a 2300ft^2 house in the country, and it was great for raising a family, but now I'd rather rejoin civilization. So I'm aware of the tradeoffs.
Average household income in Paris is 36k EUR. 2000-2500 EUR/mo is insanely expensive. For comparison, in Sunnyvale, CA, median rent for 2 bedroom is $3k, but median household income is $130k.
Seriously, if you think housing is expensive relative to incomes in Bay Area, or NYC, it will seem like a bargain compared to London or Paris.
Why would I work for 36k? This discussion is about remote work. I'm not worried about making 3x that.
As I mentioned, I've lived in Mountain View and Santa Clara. Sunnyvale is in the middle. I'm a cyclist and loved to climb up the various two lane grades and over the top to the coast and back. I visited MV and San Jose last spring. And SF. It was much more interesting in the '90s. Now the South Bay is just another dead US suburb.
I wouldn't live there again for $500k/year.
We haven't even discussed why most families move to the suburbs: children. We have done the two commute raising a child in the Bay Area. We evacuated when the school logistics became visible, and in hindsight, rightly so.
Ah ah ah, €2000-2500/m in France is crazy expensive.
In Nice, I would pay 1100€/m for the same thing, and that's also considered an expensive city.
In my current country side town, I pay the ridiculously low price of 300€/m for a 3 bedrooms flat. Now that's the lower end of the spectrum, because it's a very poor deep country side village.
But yeah, some devs start their career at 2400€ a month as a salary :)
I am really glad to hear this. The first time I looked at housing costs in Montpellier I was astounded. I asked some of my EU friends and they said yup. City center is about the same as Nice apparently, and I consider that dirt cheap. It's not Paris, but... I could dig being near the sea again. Try getting anywhere as near the US Pacific coast, hahahaha.
Imagine being so bad at your chosen career, a career so in demand that there are serious efforts to expand the talent pool to a wider variety of people, that you are afraid that those efforts will cost you your job.
Imagine being so ignorant of history that you think the (tulip hysteria, dotcom boom, condo craze, etc) will continue unabated into the unforeseeable future.
If you want to be located in a place which pays relatively high in Europe, housing prices are adequate. 10-15 years ago it would be possible to have disproportionally large salary in eastern places like Prague, but that's history now.
Even if it still costs less than SF, your paycheck now looks adequate. Covid era raised prices everywhere.
If you have family, this becomes more complex. If your kids are older have already good friends and social circles, such a move becomes supremely selfish
What if you already live in a cheaper, less bubbly area? Or decide to move there early on.
Then staying there and working remotely becomes family friendly, and moving becomes super selfish. Most people assume moving to get a good job, which will lead exactly to the consequences above.
That's because US immigration policy selects for immigrants with significant wealth or specialized educations and experience. Our policy specifically selects for high earners and the already wealthy.
You can see this effect clearly from your own source, where Australian Americans and South African Americans both have higher median incomes than almost all Asian American households, as well as white Americans. Same thing goes for Pakistani, Iranian, Lebonese and Austrian Americans compared to other groups in the US.
Yes, I understand that might be a factor. However, this still invalidates the point that whites are the most privileged group. If we take second/third-generation indians, they, on average, would be wealthier than most whites. Does this mean they are more privileged? I think yes
"However, this still invalidates the point that whites are the most privileged group."
No one made that point. And yes, it's true, if you look at certain much smaller demographic groups you can find groups that are somewhat more economically advantaged than white men.
Also current situation does not inspire confidence in somebody who may be identified as white male.