It would help before arguing to agree on definitions first. What is 'expensive'? What does it include? Does it include taxation on earned income, services provided by government (housing, social, medical) for residents and non-residents? Or it should only include products and services consumed by visitors?

Consider Singapore: one of few countries in the world with low taxation rates across the board. Moreover, these rates are applied differently depending on resident/citizenship status - paradoxically, local citizens and permanent residents pay way more taxes comparing to people on work/employment permits. This is contrary to the practice in most developed countries where everybody regardless the residency status pays the same taxes - in US for example, regardless you are citizen, green card holder, or on long term visa (H, O, E) - you need to pay the same level of taxes.

While in Singapore you might pay low taxes it is totally compensated by extremely high RE and rent prices which also are differentiated by access level depending on residency/citizenship status. Local residents/citizens can purchase/rent certain properties which non-citizens/residents can't. The same applies to education: non-residents/citizens have unequal access to schools forcing them either to use extremely expensive private schools (>$3000/mo per child, school fees only) or using home schooling. BTW, school fees are #1 reason why foreign expats leaving Singapore.

At the same time certain expense categories in Singapore would be way cheaper comparing to US/EU: lunch with coffee/tea at local hawker center in Singapore would cost you SGD 5, while in Zurich it cost me 24 Swiss Francs - 5 times more expensive. The same applies to public transportation and taxis - cheaper than in most developed places.

So... it depends...