Even with the stronger safety net, it doesn't make up for the difference compared to the US for well-paid employees (such as engineers, or tech in general). US employees are much more well-off, there's no denying that. US levels for engineers compare more to Swiss level of living.

However the safety net is much more beneficial for less-paid people, at a relatively low cost for them.

I only visited the US so others might be able to provide a more detailed comparison. It seems to me that rent is generally significantly higher in US cities (might be different in lower CoL areas), and groceries and other smaller budgets were slightly higher in France (restaurants, tech purchases, cars…).

I have worked in the US and Europe, and may give a direct comparison.

US healthcare and education consume a vast portion of your pay. We paid cash for our daughter's college (biomedical engineering) at a total of over $300K. That buys her freedom of choice when it comes time to take a job, get an advanced degree, etc. Her colleagues will have more than $500K USD debt hanging over their heads when you factor interest payments.

The company pays for a portion of health insurance, but much of the cost is picked up by the employee, either though co-payments or deductibles.

We live modestly, drive low-end cars and don't dine out often. We see our European friends taking great vacations and their children bounce in and out of college programs. We see free healthcare, mountain cottages, and other perks unavailable to us.

Interesting, thank you. It seems the calculation becomes very different when you factor in the cost of a child (especially if he goes to college).

Without going into numbers all I can say about US vs Europe: for people with low income,Europe is much much better. For middle class, it boils down to some difficult choices( kids, education, leisure) and is probably equal. While upper middle class or highly paid professionals have it better in the US.

I'm in Scotland, my salary is about £45-£48k. I take home about £31k.

The median salary here is about £21k nationwide.

I bought my home for £170k, now worth about £230k. it's a decent sized apartment in a nice area in the city where I work. For an indication of size, my living room is about 23ft by 28ft, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

Some photos to show what I got for my money:

https://imgur.com/gallery/6oNLRtl

My outgoings each month average out to around £1200k. Mortgage is under £450 a month.

Healthcare is all free, university is free, prescriptions are free.

This is a nice looking apartment!

Some perspective on the costs that look "scary" for the people outside of the USA. I'll share some personal data based on my 20 years since moving here. I have started with $60K and now I am making close to $250K. All this time I was living in a median cost area (one of the top 20 US cities, east coast).

My average effective tax rate over the last 20 years is 19.6% (this includes federal, state, social security and medicare taxes)

My average medical expenses for a family of four are at 3.6% of my gross salary (includes health/rx/dental/vision insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses)

I've paid cash for my oldest child's education at top 10 public university - ~1.5% of my earning over the last 20 years. I am expecting to pay similar cash amount for my other child.

We live in a 4000 sqft McMansion near the best public schools in the state. My mortgage is ~$820 at 2.5% APR

It does look like your effective tax rate is 31-35%, which is more than my all-inclusive rate of ~24.7%

Did you have a large down payment? That looks like a small monthly cost for such mortgage. Or maybe the interest on such loan in Scotland is very small.

My down payment was £70k, interest rate is 2.14%

When I renew at end of year it shoul be around 1.1%

Well damn, I don't think there is anything below 3.00% (3.50% more common) where I live.

That's nominal - 3.5% - 4.0% is the effective interest rate. I don't know much about mortgages, so not sure if I'm missing something. Congrats on your place - it looks great!

Is that right? I think inflation makes the effective interest rate lower than the nominal rate.

You could imagine that inflation pays ~1% of your mortgage for you because each dollar that you owe is becoming less and less valuable.

Effective interest rate is, to my understanding, not related to inflation. It's just a way to make loans with various compounding periods easily comparable (I'm mostly citing this from Wikipedia, I'm far from expert here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_interest_rate )

I just mentioned it for the sake of providing more information to whomever was reading my comment.

You're right, I confused effective and real rates.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/082113/under...