[airstrike]

From my Latin American perspective, I'd say it's due to way less disposable income in emerging markets and less of a consumerism mindset.

America has the benefit of decades of intense consumerist propaganda to fend off the evil reds, while the biggest emerging markets are often very vocally against "Capitalism" (even if they would all love to own iPhones)

[GordonS]

What about Europe, especially Western and Northern - plenty of disposable income to go round there?

[airstrike]

Not really... wages suck and taxes are massive. They just have an absurd level of government welfare

[johannes1234321]

Even though there are "absurd" levels health costs in Europe are lower than in the U.S. leading to higher life expectancy.

[mruts]

Maybe, but America has relatively low taxes and high income.

This is an anecdote, but I was looking at developer jobs in Europe and the salaries are pathetic. 65k Euros for a senior engineer with a 50% tax rate? Are you fucking kidding me? I can make 250k in the US at a 35% rate. It’s absurd.

No wonder Europe has a brain drain problem...

[photonios]

Do keep in mind that Europe is not a single country. Within the European Union, salaries and tax rates vary greatly. For western Europe, that seems a bit low.

Besides the northern countries, the tax rate is not 50%. Most countries either have a flat rate that is well below that or have a system where you pay in boxes. Like %30 over the first 20k, then %47 over the remainder etc. On top of that, many countries have countless schemes that result in tax deductions. Like owning a house gets you a discount.

In almost all cases, the effective tax rate falls well below 50%.

[zepearl]

Developers earn 250k USD/year in the US?

Any reference to the european "brain dead"-problem?

[freeone3000]

Yes.

https://voxeu.org/article/european-brain-drain is fairly comprehensive, but the idea is that highly skilled people generally go where they're paid the most for their skills.

[kensai]

This is an 11-year old article and honestly total bullshit. European developers and professionals in general are quite happy with the welfare in Europe. It's a completely different mindset. Yes we earn much less, but at least if we can sick or fired we know we can get some decent support from the state.

[mruts]

Not all of them, but engineering jobs with total comp >250k USD are not difficult to find at all.

[pm90]

> european "brain dead"

I'm guessing you mean brain drain. Or is there a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic that I missed? : )

[zepearl]

haha, thx, soooorry, I misread... :))

[joncrane]

Absolutely. Many in Silicon Valley make much, much more as Individual Contributors.