Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. I get the feeling that when you're winning at life in America...
If having more money and a bigger house is winning that's true, but many people don't see life that way. Being happy, having time to enjoy life with your friends, doing worthwhile and interesting things, raising your kids well, etc are also ways to win. In general if you talk to an older, wealthy person, they say those are things that should have done instead of working so much.
try enjoying your time with friends and long vacations
Try enjoying your time with friends and long vacations when you work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week! Ah, you can't! See!
There's a balance to be struck. Having no money isn't fun, but having no time isn't fun either. If you talk to people about their regrets, it's much more common to hear people lament working longer hours than not having had enough money.
That's awfully untrue. Except for the part where having no money as a lifestyle choice is a very Berlin thing to do. I have literally met people who switched from full time in a smaller city to part time remote to fulfill their dream of having little money in Berlin. (Berlin also has its share of genuinely poor people, but those are not the less-than-silicon-valley-wage developers we are talking about)
If having more money and a bigger house is winning that's true, but many people don't see life that way. Being happy, having time to enjoy life with your friends, doing worthwhile and interesting things, raising your kids well, etc are also ways to win. In general if you talk to an older, wealthy person, they say those are things that should have done instead of working so much.