Americans surely know the value of a good developer. Unbelievable how terrible the pay is in Europe. 70k-80k is a common end-of-career salary here. I once had a business partner (French) and we were launching a software-based business. He was the President, I was the CEO (leading all technical, engineering and operations management matters, that's quite a bit... he was handling the sales). I told him that as a first…
150k are amounts made only by succesufl business people, not by employee. No matter what you do. Top notch doctors make what 50k... Its going to be higher in Germany and UK and surely switzerland. But for example even in Berlin it wont be so much bigger than in cheaper countries.
I think the point is that even for 25k you live pretty fucking fine. Most people live happy with prices around 18-12 which are the middle-lows.
You cant buy so many things but most europeans dont care that much about buying things. The trend in bigger cities now is to have a bike and ride public transport - many people dont even want a car. You buy home and you are done.
On the other hand since wages are not so high the price of services is lower too. So things like food in restaurants is just cheap (and great). With 24k you dont need kitchen and can basicaly eat outside all the time. When you go to cheaper restaurants you are nearing the price of the raw ingredients since the people are not so expensive. It depends where you live but i dont think you can compare europe with north america.
With 150k you would be considered very very rich. Presidents and heads of state make that much in most of the european countries.