In California, after taxes, you take home about 60-70% of your gross income depending on deductions. It's a lot of money, but property in San Francisco is going for at least $800k right now.

If you want a further breakdown on numbers, linkregister and I came up with a fairly solid breakdown a while back for a new grad in SF: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13009702

Note that $1200 gets you a room in a shared flat. If you want your own one-bedroom apartment, it's probably averaging $2500/mo right now.

The US is still the one of the best places to make a filthy amount of money. For that, we trade job security, healthcare, and decently-priced universities.

If you want to earn more you should still move. In Germany base salary is pretty much your salary as the variable part is pretty limited. Here in SV it is just about half of your salary if you work for a while here. It will also pay with experience that will make you much more 'valuable' for companies outside of SV when you move back at one point.

Another option is to just go to Switzerland (e.g. Zurich). You still have German/similar culture but will earn salaries like here in SV with much less taxes. Similar cost of living but after you payed your basic needs everything else above is just a lot more to safe for your future or enjoy life with (and if you invest in stock you don't even pay a cent for long term gains in Switzerland which makes it even more attractive the more you accumulated over time).