But that 'greater' SV salary for a junior developer can give you less purchasing power than a 'lower' salary for a senior somewhere in Europe, due to cost of living.
Granted, money is 'absolute' if you use it to e.g travel around the world, but most people don't do that. In general money is 'relative' to one's environment.
Not really. I did the math in the past because I seriously considered moving to the US cuz I got an offer there. In my estimates, you would end up spending the same % of your salary in surviving, but of course the remaining let's say 30%, is simply a lot. Also a lot of things are not really that expensive (most things that are not housing, or maybe eating out.) And when you get out of the Junior level, I think the difference between SV and Europe becomes abysmal.
Also, "Europe" means many things. I am talking about Berlin here. I also know other places, like Madrid, where you just simply earn pennies in comparison so the difference becomes even higher (Madrid is more expensive than Berlin, earn less)
I still decided to stay here though (because of quality of living, work culture, music and partying, politics).
Most US-based companies are vary of hiring remotely from Europe. As a worker, I'm not sure I'd want to work from 4pm till midnight. The timezone difference makes collaboration difficult. South America seems to be in a much better position here.
Obviously, there are also US-based companies with globally distributed remote workforce, but those are a minority.
Not true. If you're making 120k in SF, after taxes and pay 4k/month on rent, your remaining salary is still greater than most junior engineers gross pay in the UK.
Yes very few developers in London earn as much as the train driver who drives the train the developer catches to work (60k for a 4 day week 80k per year after OT )
Granted, money is 'absolute' if you use it to e.g travel around the world, but most people don't do that. In general money is 'relative' to one's environment.