Its all relative. Having been on holiday in switzerland recently (Lucerne), everything is expensive because otherwise heaps more people would want to live there
It's expensive for some foreigners... not really expensive if you live and earn there. I'm saying this because I live there... and I'm not a millionaire ( yet
) Who knows, maybe we have even passed by each other on the street
That's a myth / depends on what you do.
Myth? As a teacher ( especially a CS teacher ) I was expecting you to look at numbers... based on numbers, Swiss do earn significantly more on average ( no matter the field ) than people from most of the other countries working in the same field. I'm not talking about exceptions here ( like some top of the line managers or a few really well paid IT guys - I'm a Software Engineer myself, working in the finance sector ), but in general / on average.
Still... there are quite a few factors that foreigners fail to see / consider. Sure, the higher salary pops out immediately ( a simple supermarket - Migros or Coop - full-time employee ears a minimum of 3000-4000 CHF / month Gross - roughly 3200-4200 USD Gross ), but people fail to check rents, insurances, grocery prices, etc. Don't get me wrong, no one is starving on a minimum-wage around here ( heck, they can afford more than others in neighboring countries working at better jobs ), but it's not as if out of the minimum wage one ends up saving 2000-2500 each month ( minimum wage is still "minimum"... even if it were 10000 USD / month, it's considered "minimum" for a reason ). If you want to save such amounts without any serious effort, you'll need to start earning around 5000+ CHF / month ( Net ). You can save on less too, but then you'll need to do some cuttings in other places ( like: getting a crappier rent, not going on holidays that often, buying relatively cheaper but still really good quality clothes, etc. )...