> Having to spend half your available income for things that are automatically taken on your salary in Europe is _the_ major reason Americans are paid considera

> Having to spend half your available income for things that are automatically taken on your salary in Europe is _the_ major reason Americans are paid considerably more Are you thinking of anything beyond healthcare? Youre correct that salaries and GDP are difficult to compare, but US disposable income pc is dramatically higher than almost anywhere in Europe, with the couple exceptions being tiny enclaves like Luxembourg or petrostates like Norway. Subtracting healthcare spending doesn't come close to closing the gap btwn the US and eg France. And this isn't explicable by retirement either, as Actual Individual Consumption is also dramatically higher in the US. Hell, I'm not even sure your hypothesis makes sense at first glance. If the salary difference was simply a matter of shifting govt spending into the personal ledger, wouldn't pretax incomes be as high in Europe? After all, much of the layoffs we're talking about are high-income enough that the employees would surely be net-payers in any mildly progressive tax system.