Dirty little secret in the US is that for very many people, there's no opportunity for growth whatsoever either. It's a relatively small section of society that even gets access to that opportunity. A lot of people in the US would trade their 'exciting' life of working 80+ hours a day to barely be able to pay the bills for the boring job your sister left.
> But hey she could take double the vacation that an average US employee gets!
Uh, if she could take vacation _at all_ she was already head and shoulders above a huge chunk of the workforce in the US.
I’m American but I’ve been an expat most of my adult life. I love the rest of the world. But Americans simply do not realize how good they have it.
Remember assumptions make an ass out of you and I. I've lived a big chunk of my life outside the US. I have plenty of experience with life outside the US. I also have plenty of experience with life in the US, including that outside the wealthy insula of the major cities.
I don't think Australia is the nicest country to live in by any means, but it's far better to be middle class or lower class here than in the US.
If you start cutting out this and that country from the EU then you need to cut out Mississippi and Idaho from the US. People always compare the US holistically but conveniently pick and choose which part of the Eurozone they want when it benefits their argument.
Sure she had enough to eat and wasn’t going to be homeless. But she decided that life really wasn’t very exciting and she had no opportunity for growth whatsoever, just waiting for her boss to retire so she could take over her similarly boring job. But hey she could take double the vacation that an average US employee gets!