Facing South has a a good analysis of how our real earnings compare to those of Europe:

Going back to the previous example of combined employer and employee income and “social security” taxes, here’s the same example with only the employee’s portion, i.e. take-home pay after payroll deductions:

Take-home pay, $50,000 income (USD)
	US	France	UK
Payroll Tax	$3750	$4500	$4352
Income Tax	$6945	$7915	$8156
Take-home	$39,305	$37,585	$37,492

So the British and the French take home a little less and pay a little more in VAT, but their health care is fully covered (the French employee is still paying the 8% for 100% coverage). The American employee still has to pay for health insurance (anywhere from $600 to $3000 per year in payroll deductions depending on the type of policy and company size), and most also pay additional state and local income taxes (for example, approx. $2500 in Georgia, $3000 in North Carolina, or $3900 in NYC).

Not only is he missing the whole safety net, but also the fact that a car is a luxury in places like the UK and France, where a good mass transit system exists, but a necessity in the US.

Additionally, you have far fewer worker protections here.

We spend more, but that’s because we are in debt up to our eyeballs.