When I moved to the US my nominal salary tripled but my quality of life dropped noticeably. The first part I knew going in, the 2nd part came as a total surpris

When I moved to the US my nominal salary tripled but my quality of life dropped noticeably. The first part I knew going in, the 2nd part came as a total surprise. Taxes actually come out about the same when you add the multitude of separate tax systems in the US (federal income, social security/medicare, state, local), and then in the US additionally have to pay extra for things that are paid by taxes in Europe, health care being the biggest such expense. And then there is the expectation of working 24/7, nobody has much vacation and nobody takes what they get, etc etc etc. Yeah, quality of life for Americans is nowhere comparable to Europeans, unless you're in the "I no longer work for money, my money works for money" set.