No, it's terrible. First of all you're not mobile. Most any other country you'd like to vacation in is going to appear insanely expensive. Second of all, more and more products are (for lack of a better term) "internationally priced". A Macbook Pro won't cost you much less than it costs me.
I'd much rather live in an expensive place. Then I can vacation anywhere I want because everywhere else is so cheap.
Why do you think 'Bangalore' became a verb?
In most non-managerial posts, even if you paid me half the equivalent of what you get in the US, i'd still be living a comparable life here. That's what I meant by cheap economy.
If I got $1000 from RA/TA(etc) a month in a US grad school, I'd be making more (face value) money than professionals with 4-5 years of experience here. But I can do way more with that money here. I'm spewing out gibberish, but I hope you get my idea. :\
In the top of our economies. But take your high paying Indian position and then plan a vacation to Switzerland. You're not going to feel like the top anymore. I, however, could have a mansion in India easy enough (and know a lot of Indians doing exactly that; working in Switzerland and paying for wonderful mansions in India).