Agreed, and it's an interesting phenomenon, even if you think inside the country borders.

Could Google close their entire MV office and relocate to Medford, Oregon and save millions of dollars in salaries?

But of course it's easier and there's more trust (some of which is merited because of how information and best practices spread) that someone that lives in SV can do the job their needed done.

> than makes up any other consideration (healthcare, rent, etc

I wouldn't be so quick. A three bedroom apartment in the city centre of Madrid goes for rent of about 1.7k per month. The costs in SF seem to be about 4-8k. I've heard American colleagues from the area talk about tens of thousands of dollars spent on costs for children's education, in much of Europe education is free or costs a negligible amount of money. I think in some parts of California you are eligible for certain types of aid even if you're into six figure salaries.

Anecdotally on a trip to California staying on the couch of a friend who rented a place for 3k you could have rented an entire house for the same price in Europe or presumably much of the US.

I'm German and when I started as a developer out of university I made ~45k and I paid 900 bucks in rent in a large German city and I did not even need a car.