The Eastern Europe "market rate" is lower than the US because cost of living is.
I assure you that people earning USD 40K in Eastern Europe have a quality of life comparable to their "market rate" paid US engineer (as people in the same thread are saying).
As quality of life improves (also helped by US companies paying above-average rates, compared to the local ones), so will wages and cost of living in general.
It's basic economics, it has nothing to do with "deserving" something.
If you expect US companies should pay US wages where the market rate is well below that, your expectations are simply not realistic.
It's the other way around.
But housing is much cheaper, and that leaves a lot of money left over to buy all those other stuff. In my Eastern European city, I can rent a three-bedroom house with garden for 300€/month. I probably would struggle to do the same with an IT job in Western Europe. Furthermore, it’s strange that you talk about cost of petrol, because IT firms here generally reimburse employees for taxi fares, so that they never have to drive (or use public transportation) unless they live unusually far away.
> Social security net and healthcare in Eastern Europe are awfully underfunded
Which is why most IT firms here attract employees with nice private healthcare.
This is not a major eastern European city, certainly not one where IT jobs are available.
> here attract employees with nice private healthcare.
These private health insurances are hoax. The only thing they cover is a consultation and high five with the doctor, for anything serious involving a stay in the hospital one fallbacks into public health insurance.
Cluj is Romania’s second city and home to buzzing IT sector. Granted, my house is a little farther away than the most popular suburbs for those wanting a whole house, but it is still possible to easily and fairly quickly commute into the city centre each day. Rents will rise even here at some point, but they haven’t yet, and for the IT sector (though unfortunately not for most local people) rises in rents tend to keep pace with rises in salaries.
> These private health insurances are hoax. The only thing they cover is a consultation and high five with the doctor
Getting even a consultation here from the public sector is unpleasant enough that an opportunity to freely visit the much nicer private clinic is a wonderful thing.