Comment by fooker
1 month ago
Free education and childcare doesn’t come close to shrinking a 300k USD gap in total compensation. Real number in my case, I looked into moving to Berlin last year.
> Not to mention the fascism problem of course.
Agreed.
The US is going in a terrible direction with this. I hope Europe has learned from history and won’t follow.
I could make 2x-3x if I moved to the US.
Turns out I can live a pretty comfortable life with EU salary. I could afford a house, car, family. Quality of Life is pretty great.
I am not sure if the extra money in the US would be worth it.
>I could afford a house, car, family.
You're in the minority now in EU if you can afford to have those things now. The housing and CoL crunch is real and many industries suffered layoffs. Q3 2025 youth unemployment is around 20-25% in several EU countries including developed ones like Finland, it's no longer an issue just for the less developed southern ones.
>I am not sure if the extra money in the US would be worth it.
Since you already have a house and everything, then yeah it makes no sense for you. But I would do it in a heartbeat if I could.
> You're in the minority now in EU if you can afford to have those things now.
A quick search tells me that home ownership in the EU is Approximately 70%, ranging from around 95% in countries such as Romania and Slovakia, to around 50% in Germany. Non-EU citizens disproportionately owns less houses.
So, no. I am not at all in the minority.
Youth unemployment is an issue, being 15% in the EU as a whole, with some countries hovering on 30%. The US has 10% of youth unemployment (considering their labor laws are appallingly bad for workers, I am not sure if this is much of an improvement).
> Since you already have a house and everything, then yeah it makes no sense for you. But I would do it in a heartbeat if I could.
Good for you, may you achieve your goals.
I didn't own a house until a year ago. Refusing offers from the US and moving to EU was likely the best decision I ever made.
I had a life threatening illness not long ago. In the US I would likely be either bankrupt of dead. I appreciate the safety net and labor protections here, even with the higher taxes.
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You are right, going the other way can be tough though.
There are hobbies and interests you can pursue with a tech salary in the US that are somewhat out of reach in Europe without generational wealth.
Curious: What hobbies etc are out of reach on an EU tech salary?
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> I hope Europe has learned from history and won’t follow.
France was recently an absolute inspiration in this regard.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrlxn4ngdgo
Most people in the US don't earn SV top salaries, and for most people the difference is not that big (was my point).
Right.
I not talking about average wages, as that has no bearing on whether I would want to live somewhere.
I'll primarily look at what I can make and what my quality of life would be like.
You are however making sweeping generalizations that you extrapolate from your own personal experience, while making hard connections between quality of life and the ability to earn more than your peers.
Meanwhile the Nordics for example consistently rank much higher in health, happiness, and quality of life, despite having lower top wages.
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