I agree there are things you need to control for, but I don’t think its as hopeless a comparison as you seem to imply. As previously mentioned, I’m already cont

I agree there are things you need to control for, but I don’t think its as hopeless a comparison as you seem to imply. As previously mentioned, I’m already controlling for healthcare and pension, for instance. What other insurances do European governments pay for? As for vacation days and maternity leave, I believe US professionals have pretty generous allowances as well, but I don’t have any data on hand—certainly an interesting question. EDIT: This spurred me to do some research and I came across this analysis by Pew research: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-american-lens-western-europes-middle-classes-appear-smaller/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-... TL;DR: no matter how you measure, the standard of living is better in the US than in Europe.