When I was studying a buddy got a programming job and his salary was insane, or at least I thought it was.

Then I learned he never worked less than 10 hours a day, usually more like 12, and a lot of weekends etc. Effectively he worked 1.5x a normal job here. Taking his salary and dividing by 1.5 I got something which was quite mediocre.

Thats it exactly. The math lays bare the truth of the hampster wheel in the usa. And Europeans rarely overwork. Its weird to be in the office after 7. In france its illegal for my employers to contact me after hours or on the weekend or when im on sick leave.

At the end of the day time is one thing you can’t easily buy - even if you’re making out like a bandit you can’t pay to work fewer hour or get more vacation days (it’s possible sometimes but I always had a much harder time negotiating for those than for higher pay).

You realise that peace of mind, a social safety net, paid maternity/paternity leave, walking home while the sun is still out, etc. all are infinitely more important than overworking just to get the next Porsche SUV or whatever.

Peace is it's own reward.

>walking home while the sun is still out

While the rest is all true and great, this one isn't true in western Europe for a good chunk of the year. Remember, Europe is at a higher latitude than the US, so the days are really short in the wintertime. Expect it to get dark by 4pm or so.