>Depending on the tax bracket and the state, they might or might not be. I looked it up for Germany. Let's say you make $400k married with children sole income

>Depending on the tax bracket and the state, they might or might not be. I looked it up for Germany. Let's say you make $400k married with children sole income earner. In Germany your tax comes out to 41%. In NYC it comes out to 34%. Not sure if Germany has the same number of deductions and loopholes as US taxes. If it doesn't then the US one would be even lower due to those. >But e.g. putting a kid through college is $200k in the US vs free in the EU. There are cheaper state schools which can be rather good but in general yeah. That said when the post-tax income is $150k more in the US versus Europe the $50k/year for college isn't that much.