It's interesting that you bring up the financials as a negative compared to the U.S., because the picture you paint sounds almost exactly like what I'm living right now. Barring folks who run their own business, salaries for developers in my experience really don't rise to what I would call the upper-class.

Just FYI, the U.S. also taxes worldwide income on its citizens, although you get something like a $90k automatic deduction, plus the ability to deduct money you pay in foreign taxes.