According to this international salary calculator thingy, the cost of living in Jerusalem is significantly higher than in L.A. (It says that cost of living is lower in J’lem than San Francisco, of course, but not even by a lot). You really coulda fooled me. Even if you build in the cost of the Arnona (city tax), this doesn’t make any sense to me. According to this, they’re not factoring income tax, which strikes me as the one thing that would make a significant difference (since Israelis pay a lot in taxes). Anybody have thoughts on this?
BTW, if you are an American living abroad and need to get your absentee ballot stuff organized, go here.