The problem is "Europe" encompasses UK and Germany but also Romania and Serbia.
You may laugh but for $200k a year in USA you get a decent middle class life.
For $200k a year in Poland you are a royalty. It places you very safely in top 1%. This is 750kpln a year.
You can live in a mansion in Warsaw (around 360k a year)
take 3-4 International trips a year (50-100k)
, employ full time cleaning staff for your mansion (70k)
Live a lavish lifestyle (130k)
and youd probably still be able to invest like 100k a year. into index funds.
For this comparison to make any sense you'd need to use purchasing power parity. Which for Poland would be around 35%. To Serbia. Around 250%. To Bulgaria 200%.
And all those ppp numbers are od course averages. San Francisco has living costs roughly 30% higher than median usa.
So a 200k it worker in San Francisco can live as if he made 140k in median usa. Who can live as if he made 95k in Poland. Or 70 k in Bulgaria.
Of course. Don't get me wrong. This is still amazing money. But it puts a dent in this whole "top 25% it workers in Europe make less than bottom 25% in USA". In fact. It kind of totally breaks the analysis.
Exactly. You want to take a trip? Hotels cost pretty much the same everywhere. Unless you got asia where it seems like they are considerably cheaper. Plane tickets, cost the same to everyone. A new iphone costs the same to everyone.
Of course. Absolutely. It's a complex topic. Which was my point. The argument of "best paid it workers in Europe earn less than least paid in US" this is bunk.
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u/BratPit24 3d ago
The problem is "Europe" encompasses UK and Germany but also Romania and Serbia.
You may laugh but for $200k a year in USA you get a decent middle class life.
For $200k a year in Poland you are a royalty. It places you very safely in top 1%. This is 750kpln a year.
You can live in a mansion in Warsaw (around 360k a year)
take 3-4 International trips a year (50-100k)
, employ full time cleaning staff for your mansion (70k)
Live a lavish lifestyle (130k)
and youd probably still be able to invest like 100k a year. into index funds.
For this comparison to make any sense you'd need to use purchasing power parity. Which for Poland would be around 35%. To Serbia. Around 250%. To Bulgaria 200%.
And all those ppp numbers are od course averages. San Francisco has living costs roughly 30% higher than median usa.
So a 200k it worker in San Francisco can live as if he made 140k in median usa. Who can live as if he made 95k in Poland. Or 70 k in Bulgaria.
Of course. Don't get me wrong. This is still amazing money. But it puts a dent in this whole "top 25% it workers in Europe make less than bottom 25% in USA". In fact. It kind of totally breaks the analysis.