I am on a European vacation right now, and I'm amazed by how healthy and prosperous the average European looks. I'm aware Europeans tend to have lower incomes (especially in the tech sector), but it seems that a great quality of life is much easier to achieve for the average person. So I would think that millions of middle-class Americans would benefit enormously from emigrating to Europe (the lower class would also benefit, but I suppose that emigration is more difficult for those with limited education and skills).
Here are some reasons I considered, feel free to add more:
- It's hard to be rational about quality-of-life issues. A salary is a number that can be compared, but QoL isn't, so people can't make decisions based on it
- It's actually hard for middle-class Americans to emigrate to Europe, for complex technical reasons
- Americans are afraid of learning languages, and the language barrier is a big factor
- American immigrants can't actually achieve the QoL that native Europeans have, for social reasons (hard to get promoted, make friends, etc)
- European QoL isn't actually that good, it just seems good on the surface. The well-dressed and healthy people I'm seeing on the streets are actually miserable
- Americans think of themselves as "temporarily frustrated millionaires". An American accepts lower QoL for a shot at one day making it big, even though most are going to be disappointed
Here are some reasons I considered, feel free to add more:
- It's hard to be rational about quality-of-life issues. A salary is a number that can be compared, but QoL isn't, so people can't make decisions based on it
- It's actually hard for middle-class Americans to emigrate to Europe, for complex technical reasons
- Americans are afraid of learning languages, and the language barrier is a big factor
- American immigrants can't actually achieve the QoL that native Europeans have, for social reasons (hard to get promoted, make friends, etc)
- European QoL isn't actually that good, it just seems good on the surface. The well-dressed and healthy people I'm seeing on the streets are actually miserable
- Americans think of themselves as "temporarily frustrated millionaires". An American accepts lower QoL for a shot at one day making it big, even though most are going to be disappointed