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| Unfortunately such comparisons don't necessarily reflect local income taxes (up to 9% or so in the USA), sales taxes, wealth taxes, property taxes or general markups on goods and services (the latter being so important in Switzerland that amazon.fr and amazon.de have threatened the viability of certain sectors, notably the book distribution industry.
Furthermore, in the USA health care and college education are very expensive additions to middle-class lifestyles.
Cost of lodging -- real estate prices -- is astronomic in London and New York, to name two places. On the other hand, lodging is virtually free in much of the heartland of the USA and rural England.
Better to look at the lifestyle comparisons.
For US city pairs, see http://www.moving.com/real-estate/co...ties/index.asp
For the human development index, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
Googling will give you various other city and country comparisons. | |
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The cited kpmg report focuses on taxes and social security. The UBS report, which I posted on a previous thread, describes wages, prices and purchasing power. Zurich has the highest purchasing power in the world.