None of those places have anywhere near Bar Area salaries: London, by far the city with the highest salaries in the West outside of the US, has salaries that are 70% of the ones you'd get in California before counting a significant amount of extra income and sales taxes and almost similarly ridicolous housing.

On the other hand, the private insurance in the UK that's usually included in big tech companies' work is absolutely top-notch.

In absolute values, those salaries are the highest, but for quality of living, that's largely irrelevant unless your hobbies need large amounts of capital.

For example, in big cities in Europe, you can easily and happily get by without a car, which saves a lot. You have more vacation. No tipping. Easier/more obvious ways to save for retirement. Your kids not having to do active shooter drills at school. Cheaper/free schools and universities. Maternal/paternal leave. Etc, etc.

So if you have a family, or thinking of starting a family, it's worth factoring that stuff in.

> You'll universally find a much better healthcare system (e.g. health insurance not tied to your employer), with the exception of the UK.

The NHS has something of a funding crisis right now, since our government seems to secretly want to privatize it, but it's still better than losing your health insurance if you lose your job.

You might need to revisit the definition of second world countries (soviet aligned countries during the cold war).

'"Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.' - From Google.