I pay 33% in taxes on that income. But that 33% includes healthcare, retirement, school, university, etc... I'm currently enjoying 20 weeks paid time off this year to spend with my newborn. Also I only work 4 days a week, on top of the 5 weeks holiday every year.
I'm sure some devs in the US could also set this up for themselves and still come out on top, but in the Netherlands everyone gets this (not the 80k, but the society benefits). Which is worth something, too.
What is there to do except 'wage-slave' like this? We're just born here and make the best of it. :)
Plus you have to take into account that the difference is much smaller when accounting for PPP. Still you won't hear me complain to get all this AND a US salary, perhaps something remote in the future.
To me there is just a difference between comfortable and great.
> What is there to do except 'wage-slave' like this? We're just born here and make the best of it. :)
To put it concisely: Becoming independent and doing what you truely want to do without having to worry about opportunity cost, monetary compensation, or societal repercussions for "wrongthink".
Ironic considering there's very few paths to FIRE in the US (work in tech, be born rich). Whereas the average person in the EU has a safety net that "independent" people in the US have to slave for.
Few paths to FIRE in the US? Well definitely still more than in the EU.
The primary reason people aren't all going FIRE in the US is stupidity. Seriously, how can some people make 300k a year and not be a millionaire within a decade, then retire for the rest of their life in some LCOL place at 35??
You would have to force me to somehow blow that much money on retarded nonsense, as most of them seem to do.
For anyone who is not completely clueless about money FIRE is relatively attainable in the US.
Of course, the average US citizen is closer to homelessness than being a millionaire. The US savings rate is abysmal.
> Move to a LCOL area
That's the beauty of those "terrible" safety nets, after a certain age anywhere in the EU becomes a LCOL area.