[laurencerowe]

I think that's much more true around the median income whereas highly paid professionals tend to get good healthcare paid for by their employer.

I moved from the UK to US a decade ago. Software engineer salaries in the UK are on the 75th percentile of earnings vs the 90th percentile in the US. The US also has higher variance of income, so at the 90th percentile one would earn 2.6x the median salary vs 2.0x in the UK. If you are a highly paid professional the US is a pretty good place to be.

The downside is of course you live in a much more unequal place with all the societal problems that implies. After having a kid we're thinking of moving back to Europe, though whether we can find jobs and visas in the places we'd like to live is an open question. It's a lot more complicated having lost my EU citizenship post Brexit.