Hang on a minute. Expat, Australia isn't an expensive place to live. The cost of living (the basics) is very affordable on a global (western) scale. Where the US has us beat is the cost of luxury goods and the credit system (bank loans, credit cards etc). If luxury goods and cheap credit is your definition of 'lifestyle', then yeah, you're right.

It's also unfair to compare Sydney to the rest of Australia. Even we cry when we have to go to Sydney. Sydney is the Paris Hilton of cities - good to look at for a laugh, but really quite a dud lay, and definitely not worth the money.

Did you spend any time at all down here in Melbourne? Melbourne is much less precocious than Sydney, is much more affordable, and doesn't try so hard.

On the whole 'Internet Business' thing, I have to profess we're totally backward in that respect, so anyone expecting to make some sort of living via net based sales is going to struggle in the next three to five years. We don't have the history of 'catalog' buying like they do in the US and are skeptical of credit cards and companies that haven't been around for 30 years and don't have a shop front. This is slowly changing though as people's cheapness trumps their skepticism. "It won't happen overnight, but it will happen"

What would make me move overseas is not a lifestyle problem, but more of getting sick of the parocialism and apathy (and worse) that we're becoming renowned for.