The Tax in Europe is generally much higher, but a lot of it is hidden in payroll tax and VAT that you don't see.

So x% has already 'come off your paycheck' before you see it, and then an extra 15% on everything that you buy. Which is also hidden.

That is offset by extra services, esp. healthcare, but in tech, healthcare is usually a benefit on top of salary anyhow.

I've yet to see a calculation where these factors balance the salary gap across the Atlantic. How is a European dev on 40k going to get to say $120K with tax, healthcare, and holidays?

Well it's more than that: it's also parks, public transport, nice civic infrastructure, a lot of local civic things, generous benefits when out of work, cheaper education, probably higher relative salaries for 'many others'.

The US may not average $120K for devs, it's probably lower across the board. Then you actually do have apparent inequality problems in the US and if that were taken care if, it would be even less.

It's not as wide as indicated by salaries, but it's still a gap.

You raise an interesting point.

Europeans don't really need to save much money. Because the government takes care of health, education and all the essential things. Why do you need a lot of money if you have everything taken care of.

On the other hand when you are living in US or anywhere else you need to have a shit ton of money in bank just to make sure that you don't go bankrupt.

For example education for your kids would be ridiculously expensive in US. And if you don't have an insurance you might get bankrupt if you have to hospital for emergency.

If I have a choice to be born again in a random country, I would be opting for Germany or some scanadanvian country for sure. US is too risky to be born randomly.

? Education and Healthcare are just 'a few things' not the most essential things.

Europeans still need money.

Also, remember, that taxes pay for that, so with less incentive to work, there's equally less incentive for taxes to pay for all of that stuff.

The degree to which it is an incentive is really complicated, but it is real to some extent.

I am not saying Europeans don't need money. There is no strong reason for them to have shit ton of money like in Silicon Valley. A German who makes 60k euroes in Berlin has so much better quality of life than someone who makes 120k dollar in San Francisco. Rent is affordable, public transport is great, health care is taken care of and you don't have to save much for children's education. What else someone need money for? Or am I missing something.