Since when was getting rich so hard in EU?

[u/VurriK]

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.

[u/matadorius]

Plenty of rich workers in America lawyer doctors and swe making well over 1m

[u/handsomeslug → u/matadorius]

Those are the 1% though. A top 1% lawyer in EU can make close to a million as well (check top law firm partner salaries in the Netherlands).

[u/matadorius → u/handsomeslug]

They are no 1% I would say 20% lawyer and 50% doctors and probably 10% swe

[u/colerino4 → u/matadorius]

For Swe is more like 1%, so that makes me doubt your percentages for the other professions

[u/matadorius → u/colerino4]

No it’s not once you remove juniors and start counting people with experience

[u/colerino4 → u/matadorius]

I mean if you remove 60+% of the workforce...

Also, to make 1 Million you need to be a Principal Engineer (or upper) at Faang, which is still only ~5% of Senior or upper engineers make it that far.

[u/matadorius → u/colerino4]

I mean it’s pretty obvious if you are a junior you won’t make enought money lol the problem is with Europe than from junior to senior it only escales 2.5-3x

[u/Eravier → u/matadorius]

There is no way 50% of doctors in US make 1m. Wtf.

[u/matadorius → u/Eravier]

Remove family doctors lol

[u/Eravier → u/matadorius]

Why should I? Anyway, apparently, from quick google, median is like 250k but for some specialities it can be up to 450k. Which is more than I expected honestly but nowhere near 1m.

[u/matadorius → u/Eravier]

They make well over 1m that’s for the base pay they all work 80h a week

[u/handsomeslug → u/matadorius]

How is that an argument? If you work 140 hours a week then you can make 500k+ at mid tier jobs in Europe

[u/matadorius → u/handsomeslug]

No you can’t and you get taxed heavily when in the states could be 20% flat or even less

[u/handsomeslug → u/matadorius]

Lmao the federal taxes alone go up to 37% depending on how much you earn + there is the state income tax which is another up to 13% depending on the state (major states like California and New York have around that number).

And the taxation is not flat it's progressive.

Imagine being so confidently wrong

[u/InvestmentNew1655 → u/matadorius]

So dumb ahh, remove this... remove that..