
The World's Most Expensive Cities 2010 - samratjp
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109909/the-worlds-most-expensive-cities-2010
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patio11
Nagoya is not a terribly expensive city to live in if you live like a Japanese
person. (The starting salary for engineers is about $2,200, and for a single
young man that makes one comfortably middle class.)

If you live like a Western executive, though, it can be kind of pricy. (My
friends and I sometimes talk -- mostly jokingly -- about the English tax: if
you need somebody to explain things to you in English, you are almost
certainly paying a premium over market for that service. On high-end
apartments, for example, the difference between going to the place I know
which markets itself as foreigner friendly and walking into the apartment
service and asking for the comparable apartment next door is about 50%.)

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fgf
That's monthly? I would make more as a postman in norway (working considerably
less).

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starkfist
I was shocked at how low the salaries were in Japan when I lived there. The
company subsidizes the train, which otherwise would be a major expense, but
still...

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autarch
The article would be better titled "Most Expensive Cities (if You Live Like an
American)".

That's the only explanation for all the African cities. No doubt American
food, and in particular, American _brands_ , are very expensive there.

OTOH, if you're willing to eat native foods and buy native brands, I seriously
doubt Louanda is all that expensive.

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ComputerGuru
Does anyone have an actual LIST that I can look at _AT ONCE_ and compare the
entries, spot patterns, etc?

I can't even hover over the images/thumnails and get the name of the city!
Even the URIs are numbers and not names, so I actually have to click through
50 pages!

EDIT:

Here y'all are: <http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp>

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henrikschroder
Hah, that one is funny. The numbers for Stockholm look really weird. Groceries
is at index 110, but rent at 27. This is true and a result of decades of
political rent control, but what the numbers don't tell you is that it's
impossible to actually get a decent apartment for rent. It's a completely
dysfunctional market.

If they would have factored in the costs for buying an apartment or a house,
it would look a lot more sane, and you would get numbers that are closer to
what you would expect.

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tptacek
Wait, what? The third most expensive city in the world is in West Africa, and
has 57% of its population living in extreme poverty? What happened there?

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waterlesscloud
Luanda has been notably expensive for a long time, for western lifestyles
anyway. I think the main issue there is that the western contingent is small
and very corporate.

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tptacek
Isn't this a little like saying that NYC is the most expensive city in the
world by isolating Tribeca and ignoring the Bronx?

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natrius
Yes.

[http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0622_most_expensive_...](http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0622_most_expensive_cities/30.htm)

"Note: Prices are for Manhattan only."

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enjoy-your-stay
Ah, Zurich at no. 10, the place I've chosen to develop my startup. I probably
should've taken my hard earned savings somewhere cheaper, but it's a great
place to live and has a very good infrastructure.

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csomar
Not accurate for me. If the average salary in XXX is $10,000 and the cost of a
lunch is $50; then it's not quite expensive for the average person. But when
your salary is $300 and the lunch is $10, it's really expensive.

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pfedor
Well at the very least it's useful if you're comparing job offers, in which
case you know the salary, but not the cost of living. (Another thing to look
up is taxes.)

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socksy
This isn't really much use to anyone but US tourists if it won't take in to
account purchasing power parity...

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allend
Lunch in Copenhagen for $36. Wonderful.

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mixmax
I live in Copenhagen, and I can assure you those are not average prices. I
don't know where they got those numbers.

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henrikschroder
Well, the picture in the article is of D'angleterre, perhaps they ate their
lunch there? :-)

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rick_2047
This is really interesting that most of the countries are on the list because
of currency trends. Due to the weakening of the dollar or strengthening of the
yen. Most of the top 10 comprises of Japanese cities and US has only one city
in there. Goes to show how weak dollar has become

