Hi there,
It's not supposed to be a rant or anything else obviously, sorry if the title kinda made you think that.
It's just that Americans have no idea how low our salaries are even in Western Europe : 20-30k euros per year is THE NORM in tons of European countries. In fact, if you go to some Eastern European countries (where many are poor countries in fact), you'll encounters tons of people making less than 300-200 euros per month. Sometimes less in the poorest regions.
Sure, a very small minority of us manages to make 10k+ per month or something, like 2% of us maybe, but that's it.
Now compare this to America, where you have millions and millions of people who make 6 figure salaries, where earning 100k is common, and 200-300-400k salaries are typical wages for doctors/bankers and the sort…this is NOT a thing in Europe, almost no one makes that kind of money.
The cost of life is really high? Sure, I get that. You're on your own for a lot of stuff like education and healthcare? Yeah I agree…but damn you guys have INCREDIBLE opportunities everywhere, we don't.
I make 25k a year, and yet I have a degree, and it's normal here (Spain)…and I won't be able to buy a house with this income like, ever.
So yeah, stop thinking Europe is that great : it's not for a lot of European countries (even though yeah, some are great like Switzerland or Luxemburg or Norway or whatever). We're declining, we're losing opportunities, jobs are disappearing, degrees are useless, and despair is everywhere. I'd much rather work hard in America than Spain where there is no future.