sarah, very well said.
Costs of living in Paris and London is just silly. All places are highly overpriced without any real reason. There is a reason why many of the big companies that had offices inside London for decades are leaving the city for the suburbs. Its just not worth it, london is overpriced in everything. Paris is similar.
Thus this is a really stupid comparision.
Also, those percentages are very funny
Like Sarah said:
1) cars: I am first of all actually quite sure that 70% or so in germany for example have their own car. But to be honest, who in their right minds would want a CAR in friggin London or Paris? How stupid would you have to be to get one? Using public transport will get you around twice as fast in most big cities in europe. Most people in europe live in bigger cities where a car is most often not so needed. The US is VERY stretched out, you simply do not have that in europe.
2) air conditioning? Since when is air conditioning in any way connected to quality of life? Air conditioning produces overly dry air, its expensive to operate, and if you actually build good houses with good isolation you do not even NEED it unless you live in a place that has 100 or so HOT days a year.
3) washing machine: Very true, probably less people OWN a washing machine in for example germany than in the US. But this only goes for people living in apartments. Because the apartment buildings generally have plenty of free washing machines in the basement. So why buy your own? I have yet to find anybody in germany that has their own house and no washing machine.
4) Color TV/DVD/VCR: I am very sure the percentage is very similar in comparable european countries.