> Both are high-cost countries. This may still be true, if you're talking about some kind of broad categories of countries. But from your example, the US is th

> Both are high-cost countries. This may still be true, if you're talking about some kind of broad categories of countries. But from your example, the US is then clearly a much-higher-cost country than Germany. There's a lot of crazy expensive stuff in the US, that wouldn't fly like that in Northwest Europe. Go grocery shopping. Get a cellular plan. Conversely, get a job. You'll see the differences. Everything is so freakin' inflated in the US, it's not even funny anymore (as if it'd ever be). (I grew up close to the German border.)