Naive economics question for you, Twitter! I’ve been traveling in Scandinavia, where cost-of-living seems weirdly skewed: cheap-ish real estate, expensive meals and goods (relative to SF).
In other places I’ve traveled, these usually correlate, but not here. What gives?
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I don’t think “high tax welfare states” alone explain it: many things are >50% more expensive than in SF, but VAT and income tax differences wouldn’t explain that. And average rent is less than half SF’s. (c.f. numbeo.com/cost-of-living)
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I'd assume the food & goods are imported/taxed?
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Yes, in some cases! But even the domestic stuff is much higher priced here, relative to housing. And VAT isn’t high enough to account for it. 🤔