The joke used to be how expensive Switzerland was...now I am looking at prices in Zurich for food, drinks, hotels and it's no different than what you'd pay in a big city in the US, maybe less.
Groceries are about the same with the exception of beef which literally seems like it’s 2-3x us prices.
I think rent in Switzerland is way cheaper both in absolute terms and the value you get for your money. The housing stock is much better quality than the Bay Area. Having good public transit also makes it easier to live in a wider variety of places too.
and you can't compare in-n-out to a sit down place.
an average casual ramen place is like $22 a bowl now here. add an egg (yes, they don't include it anymore) and it's $25. then add one drink or something and you're at $30. Then tax is $33 and tip is another $6-7. That's $40 for a ramen and a drink.
If you get 2 drinks, an appetizer and 2 sandwiches yes, it's about $40 pp. But if you just get two sandwiches it's much closer to 20-25PP.
Similar story here: https://coconutspaloalto.com/menu.html
These are two restaurants in some of the most expensive real estate and highest income area in California if not the whole US. Meanwhile the Indian place was as I said, 40km outside Basel (the town was amusingly called Frick).
(by the way I checked Ramen Nagi, also in Palo Alto and has lines out the door every day. Regular bowl is 15.25, an egg is 2.75. So I think your baseline is a bit high.)
I'm in San Francisco. Not sure if you've been to a sit down place recently but trying to argue a sit down meal is $25pp inclusive of tax and tip is ridiculous.
A better indicator would be Kebob prices, but I just don’t remember those.
Whatever, for what I made in Switzerland, it didn't seem like a big deal, and you can live pretty well in Swiss with very deterministic costs, whereas in the states, tax and tips sneak up on you.
