I’m sorry to disappoint you but the EU is unable to create any usable alternatives to US tech chiefly due to lack of SWE talent (among other things). Anyone remotely competent sees the 40k senior SWE salaries offered by European tech companies and immediately crawls through glass just to work at a mid-tier company in the Northern California area of the United States.

Once they pay "modern" US health insurance (esp after a layoff) and also need to raise a family, the vast majority will crawl back through lava.

Still no - PPP (that’s after expenses such as food, healthcare, housing, etc) is significantly higher in the United States.

I believe that would be true (after food, housing, healthcare, taxes, child-care, etc) only for a very narrow band of senior SWE's. And you are still not considering employment protection. And for junior or mid-level SWE's, not at all true for the overwhelming majority.

This is true not only for SWEs, but for the median worker in the United States.

Huh no. I'd never work in the US. I won't even visit there as long as the current regime is in place (and the mandatory social media declaration, which I believe is more bipartisan).

I even moved to a lower wage country in Europe even to a pay cut, money isn't everything. Quality of life is. I won't live in a country that is anti-LGBT and with such a culture glorifying toxic masculinity. And at the same time giving a huge middle finger to the world by having the most polluting country in the world per capita quit climate change reduction efforts.

I don't think you understand how badly Trump has destroyed the reputation and goodwill of the US to the rest of the world in just one year. Everyone I know is actively trying to disconnect from US products and services (though admittedly I am in more activist circles)

And salaries here are a lot higher than that. Even here in a lower-wage country. Also, I don't need a car where I live which scraps a whole category of expenses, healthcare is free and I have protections in case I get fired.

I’d love alternatives that work well, but having used the said Chinese ones, I got no choice but to stick to the behemoths. Telegram may eat a bit into the messaging dominance, but that’s it.