Of course there are exceptions such as Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.
My relatives in Zurich can’t afford to go on vacation in their own country.
I think the dollar goes a lot further in Austria (well Tyrol at least - I haven’t been to Salzburg or Vienna in 25 years), Greece, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain than it goes in Toronto, in my experience. I really miss visiting. Portugal and Czech Republic are especially cheap relative to Canada.
I probably should have said that my experience was from at least twenty years ago. 
My bad.
some large caution is required when comparing the costs of things via an “exchange rate”
the DEM went from 4:1 USD to >2:1, then converted to Euro 1:1 and the Euro was 1.2:1 USD at that time.
the best “comparison” is when one is earning the local currency . . . when I took an overseas assignment to Germany, I took a ‘pay cut’ per the exchange rate - but my DEM salary was generous and we had no issues making ends meet and funding extensive travel / experiences…
Yeah that whole side tangent re: exchange rate was kinda besides the point, unless one is merely a tourist spending only a brief time abroad.
perhaps to put a bow on it, the Big Mac Index compiled by the Economist can be a useful data set when considering macro-economic conditions across various geographies.
the latest data shows a big mac is essentially the same price in the ‘average Euro’ zone country, the UK, and Canada.
in Switzerland it’s 44% more expensive, and in Argentina it’s 33% cheaper.
Slightly different tangent, but relating to the cost of burgers.
We’ve been tracking the price of burgers around Toronto lately. Toronto Burger and Fries Price Metric Thread, June 2023 and onwards
I have the type of brain that constantly price-checks.
I’m also following the price of a single good slice of pizza, butter chicken, whole pizzas , cappuccino and cortados.
How about a surcharge for “security”?
https://lamag.com/dining/perch-bar-dtla-restaurant-adds-security-fee
“Nice meal you’ve got there. Shame if something happened to it.”
Take the cannoli.
Damn. I missed it. Whatever was said.
It was Second Amendment politics.
Electricity. My bill went up over 40 % . Northern California.
Now I’m glad I missed that.
Oops–that was apparently a different site discussing security … I think. It’s hard to keep all the threads/sites straight.
No, It was here. It was in response to link a few posts above about a restaurant in LA adding a charge to the bill for security. The post in question was certain to start an off topic, heated political argument so it was rightly hidden IMHO. If the site wants politics kept out of posts, that is.
I’ll respectfully disagree. So many of these workers are youths. Many in HS and/or college, there to make ends meet. I don’t think it should be automatic that a “living wage” be mandatory for such instances. Be nice if my daughter could rake $20/hr for serving; but that price will possibly ruin her employer. $13 is better than $0.
