In western europe: Real estate is more expensive than the US, public health care is a bad joke at the expense of the taxpayers and whenever you need something more than "I have a stomach ache", you go private. The main difference with the US is that our government doesn't intervene in the health care market (too much) which means our private health care is quite affordable.
Taxes are generally on par with the USA in most countries. Fuel costs more but few over-expensive cities (eg London, Paris) have barely decent public transport (not that cheap though).
Some countries have it better than the US but the jobs pay significantly less. I would say the UK is a good compromise in terms of costs of living, low taxes, high salary and weather. Even though tax-wise things may change for the worse, given the cost of covid's lockdown.
Another approach would be to look into some poor islands or places with special tax regimen and being able to command a high salary remotely because of your experience. I'm not sure how much more this strategy is going to work in the future, though: if everyone is remote, wages should go down / be linked to where you live.
Overall, I'd say a few countries are better than the USA, but most of Europe has several disadvantages.
I have some friends who found happiness in South Asia, but that's a completely different mentality.
I mean, actual honest comparisons of health care systems, police, judicial system, politics, and so on.
For example, most Americans who don't have friends from other countries might not be aware how absolutely insane the prices for cars are in some countries.
Oh? Like where?
- The socialised medicine is not as bad as one would think. If that doesn't suffice, additional private medicine is affordable.
- The tax regime is simple. Rates are relatively low.
- Transport. Within the city, public transport is not too bad and taxis are very very affordable. In non-covid19 times, all of Europe is one cheap flight away.
Oh, the irony of writing this from overpriced Leuven, Belgium :-)
You could take the arbitrage further by increasing upfront and post move earnings and decreasing future expenses: - Save up "no thanks" money at the high cost of living place. Not "f* y" money, but a significant sum. - Ideally, find a remote job at the hight cost of living place. - Relocate to a low cost of living place with decent socialised medicine. This can lower provisions for future expenses _a lot_.
At least in the EU, there are nice and safe places with very low real estate prices, quite decent socialised medicine, very low taxes and easy cheap transportation links around the continent.