AFAICT, based on my visits and the people I know there, it's a pretty different lifestyle, people seem much more frugal. People eat out less frequently. Owning

AFAICT, based on my visits and the people I know there, it's a pretty different lifestyle, people seem much more frugal. People eat out less frequently. Owning a car is much less common, and those that people own are usually much less luxurious (many more very compact cars). Housing is generally much more modest (this is almost universally true), Europeans seem a bit flabbergasted at the gigantic houses we live in when they visit. A lot of things like transit and healthcare are heavily subsidized, so low earners can still get around and get medical attention. The top tax rates are fairly high, but I believe not that much higher than the cumulative tax rates for a high earner living in CA or NY, once you consider fed income+state income+sales tax+payroll tax. Basically, Europeans on average have much lower incomes than Americans, and they seem much more frugal.