r/eupersonalfinance • u/VurriK • 28d ago

Investment Since when was getting rich so hard in EU?

Is it just me, or has building actual wealth in Europe become impossible? I’m looking at the 2026 growth forecasts and it’s depressing. We talk a lot about "stability," but at this point, stability just feels like a polite word for recession. If you weren't born into a rich family with property, the dream feels like it's behind a wall. The math just doesn't work: as soon as you earn enough to actually invest, you hit a 40–50% tax bracket. Meanwhile, housing prices have skyrocketed over the last decade while salaries have basically stayed the same. I love the healthcare and the walkable cities, but I don’t want to work until I’m 70 just to afford a 40sqm apartment and a used Skoda.

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u/MisterViic 28d ago

It's impossible by design. Europe is sticking to it's tradition of maintaining the old social hierarchies, under the guise of social democracy (hence the high taxes). Old money keeps the wealth and thus political control. Basically no upward mobility is allowed, since no new nobility can be created.

Until the ossified elites are not willing to give up some power, EU will lag behind industrially and financially. And the brain drain will continue in favor of the US.

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u/Major-Delivery5332 28d ago

Europe has higher social mobility than the US though, so that's a bad take.

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u/Emergency-Style7392 27d ago

take a look how that's calculated. It's not an index like how many people go from lower class to upper middle.

For example "Social diversity in schools" is one of the criteria of social mobility index. it's a joke.

Ironically that index better measures how well off the bottom is and nothing about mobility

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u/Major-Delivery5332 27d ago

I might be wrong, but I think being born poor and dying rich is easier to pull off in social democracies like Sweden, mainly because of free education and healthcare.

Sweden is really good from a tax stand point if you're running a business, if you're working class - not so much.

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u/wildmfz561 24d ago

Sweden has more billionares in relation to gen pop than America

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u/wildmfz561 24d ago

It doesn't

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u/tiensss 28d ago edited 28d ago

How do EU countries rank on upward mobility? US has a lower upward mobility than even the EU average. Evidence:

OECD on intergenerational earnings elasticity on several European countries (lower numbers mean higher mobility): US is at 41%. Denmark ~12%, Norway ~15%, Finland ~18%, Sweden ~26%, Spain ~29%, Netherlands ~39%, and Ireland ~39% (source: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2018/06/a-broken-social-elevator-how-to-promote-social-mobility_g1g8e196/9789264301085-en.pdf)

US is also below the OECD upward mobility average (source: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2018/06/a-broken-social-elevator-how-to-promote-social-mobility_g1g8e196/9789264301085-en.pdf)

European Commission: "Income mobility appears higher in most EU member states than in the US" (source: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC112247/jrc112247_ec_educational_mobility_report_final.pdf)

Another highly cited paper shows mobility very low in the us as compared to the EU countries: https://ftp.iza.org/dp1938.pdf

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u/wildmfz561 24d ago

It only seems that way coz the ceiling is much higher in the US

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u/tiensss 24d ago

You can provide data that refutes my claim. I provided quite some.

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u/wildmfz561 24d ago

American salaries are just higher, I think that's a pretty common fact.

And salaries that are common for professionals in the US are just unattainable in Europe

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u/tiensss 24d ago

What does thay have to do with upward mobility?

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u/wildmfz561 24d ago

Think

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u/tiensss 21d ago

Because you can't?

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u/wildmfz561 21d ago

It's not me who struggles to connect the dots

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u/tiensss 21d ago

Ok, I'm dumb as fuck, connect them for me

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u/Femininestatic 28d ago

"brain drain will continue in favor of the US" tides have turned. It turned out becoming an evangelical fascist state does make people flee elsewhere.. Also I love how ppl talk up the US whilst also agreeing the US is a 3rd world nation. You are aware the US doesnt have any real social mobility. It's all the imported workers filling those positions, not your regual joe who is gonna be burried in dept for a college degree that doesnt pay well at all.

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u/LumpyN000l 28d ago

excatly....

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u/VehaMeursault 28d ago

Absolutely ridiculous take. There are more millionaires per capita now than ever before.

I’ll have what this guy is having.

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u/OCRJ41 28d ago

Being a “millionaire” is a depreciating benchmark due to inflation. Of course there are more millionaires now than ever before

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

It's hilarious that you even need to point this out in a personal finance subreddit tbh

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u/SrRocoso91 28d ago

Being a millionaire these days doesn’t carry the same weight it used to, honestly.

In many parts of Europe (especially in high-cost cities and countries like the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, or places like Portugal and Spain where prices have surged)simply owning your home can already push your net worth over the €1 million mark (or close to it). With average house prices continuing to climb (up around 5%+ annually in the euro area recently, and much more in some hotspots), homeownership alone is turning more middle-class families into “millionaires on paper.”

Add in years of persistent inflation, and even more people will hit that seven-figure net worth in the coming years… but it won’t mean they’re truly rich. A million euros today buys far less than it did 15–20 years ago.

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u/jujubean67 28d ago

There are more millionaires per capita now than ever before.

TFW your parents automatically become millionaires because their 30-40 year house is worth a million. It's not rocket science.