A value added tax of 25% is levied on the sale of most goods and services (including groceries).
NUMBERS are entirely irrelevant.
Example: VAT in Germany is 19%, VAT in Spain is 21%.
Just pulling ONE random example, cost of living, cost of groceries.
In Germany, even more so in Spain, I can get groceries a lot cheaper than I remember from the US.
With 15 I am getting here three if not four large, heavy bags of foods, including coffee, a 12 pack of beer, cat food, cheese, produce, meat etc.
It is very rare that we spend more than 30 in the store, and if we do we'd need two people to carry stuff home.
Whether there is an actual 21% tax on whatever I buy is not of interest - what counts is *real life* expenses of life, what you spend. This includes every-day stuff like groceries but also doctor's visits, medication and whatnot. And despite the "horrible VAT", a lot of standard things here are significantly cheaper.