gutzmankOh, right. I’m sorry that I forgot about that–which is odd, since I celebrated the Danes’ decision at the time.
We have similar phenomena in the USA. My state of Connecticut, for example, is very expensive in virtually every sense. We generally have higher nominal incomes here than in Texas or Idaho (where I spent much of my life before I came here), but we if anything live less well. As in regard to you visiting Germany, if I visit Idaho or Texas, I find that the money I take there from Connecticut will buy much more than in Connecticut. My favorite example is that the same 30-ounce Coca-Cola in the same plastic cup costs me $2.75 (including sales tax) at McDonald’s in Danbury, CT, $1.06 at McDonald’s in Boise, Idaho, and $1.00 at a McDonald’s in Lawton, Oklahoma.
There’s more wealth in the greater New York City area (where I live) than in most of the rest of the USA, which accounts for the generally higher prices, but oddly this doesn’t translate into higher standards of living for most people–unless you count living near New York City as a benefit (which I don’t). I suppose this same truth obtains for Danes vis-a-vis Germans, Dutch, et al.