This seems to be more of an NA thing. I know/have heard of plenty of EU devs who cut short interviews with NA companies offering 6 figure salaries because they lived very comfortably on their (often lower end) 5 figure salaries and why would they want any more? Especially if it involves sacrificing QoL.
In NA, especially in the US, you get a bit of support. But after a period of time, you will be homeless. The period of time depends upon your State. I think in all cases, this period of support, will not exceed 1 year, some states much less. Also that support itself, is no were near the amount needed to cover basic living expenses.
This means, in the US, many people would have a very hard time saying no to the a high salary.
And there seems to be a trend where Companies will not hire people where were unemployed at the time of the interview. Luckily right now that trend seems to have reversed somewhat due to the skill work shortage.
The amount of support varies wildly and is situationally dependant.
Eg: as an Irish person working and paying taxes in Germany, when I lost my job there was significantly less help available than there was to a German colleague. Which shouldn’t be the case, but it is.
Why did they interview at the company in the first place?
"Oh we have plenty of remote employees! But it is on a team per team basis so that's something you'll have to bring up with your manager", says the recruiter
"Oh that's a great question, let me check in with my VP but we should definitely keep the ball rolling!", says the manager.
The interviews go on, and then they push an offer with a big number, except now they're not ambiguous and they tell you you're gonna have to move to SF/NYC/etc, hoping the big number will do the convincing.
In my experience, pulling that trick on a Swedish or a Swiss person will be met with a flat "nah I'm not interested in SF, thanks for wasting my time".
(same trick applies with companies who have multiple offices and tell you they're open to you working at $OFFICE_OF_CHOICE... until the offer is on the table and all of a sudden they really care where you'll have to be)
There's definitely lots of cultural things at play here; one of them in my experience is that American culture tends to see a lot of things as "negotiable", whereas European cultures (especially nordic/germanic ones!) like things to be clear and black on white from the get go.
That's it, at that moment I am no longer interested, and it leaves somewhat of a bitter taste - they definitely knew where the position was and could have saved everyone some time by saying it right away.
How much money would it cost for your children to safely cross the city on a bike in the US?