Lower cost developers regardless of talent / skill typically don't work for companies that prioritize highly skilled, productive engineers in their budgets and plans. Enterprise software companies like SAP, IBM, HP, etc are notorious for this and prioritize relatively few, rare roles that match market rates for a lot of technology leaders.
Software that is really slow to release and change due to its customers being slow and bureaucratic have less business need to hire the top tier developers that can keep them competitive - their primary levers in driving business are now sales based, and if you want a career in sales I think those companies are excellent. When HP acquired the company I worked for, they compared themselves in compensation and growth to IBM, SAP, etc. - no mention of Google, Microsoft, or even Yahoo. Furthermore, software developers in the US have so many options that can result in lots of churn when they get assigned really terrible technical work while there's fewer options or a different management approach that treats human labor as a commodity (competes primarily upon price, not much else - it is inefficient to have John Carmack write a bunch of REST calls for a CRUD app, but maybe a team of 12 very cheap developers that are poorly managed can be thrown into a basement and figure it out). It's just globalization at work.
American living standards are high (and should well be as the world's largest, richest economy) IMO and salaries are adjusted for the socioeconomic expectations. I grew up here as a child of immigrants and a father used to being abused as an employee relatively (in the bottom 30% of compensation for experience and skill). The kind of luxuries that people expect all the time in terms of housing and leisure activities is a bit myopic though even among Americans that grew up in poverty decades ago I've noticed. "Country people" driving Mercedes SUVs and living in 2500 sq ft houses that need maids is evidently something that exists.
I lived perfectly fine by my ideas of adequate living for years after college on less than $1k / mo because I didn't have many interests that required much money but this is around the poverty line it seems. I'd love to live with such a simple life and bank the rest of my income but it'd be a lonely road.