[asdff]

I don't think you understand how much money is in the bananastand here in the US. Even with a european tier safety net, its not like a huge tradeoff will be made. You could easily pay people the same and give them solid benefits to boot with just a little bit more taxation at the top end of the economy. People act like taxing rich people will scare them off, yet there are probably more rich people in California than in Texas or some other red state where they'd be taxed less presumably.

[Fordec]

So move to Europe then. Enjoy your $75k/yr salary with 42% income tax. Other fomments in this thread are using $150k as a baseline salary of reasonable expectation. It's not a big deal to you after all. I on the other hand emigrated from Europe already and don't plan on returning. I make more here now per year than I did cumulatively in my first 7 years of work combined and finally have hope of not living with my mother for the rest of my life and can afford housing. And this is the "it didn't work out" timeline.