I want to live comfortably without having to work all the time, and my version of living comfortably involves a lot of the finer things in life.
As far as European vs. American (or in my case, Canadian) goes, one of the major differences that I'm aware of is the amount of vacation time that the average working stiff gets. I get 3 weeks per year plus stat holidays. My understanding is that most Europeans get a lot more than that. If you want a lot of time off of work while still maintaining a good standard of living you need to be a 'high-value' employee here in North America.
As far as European vs. American (or in my case, Canadian) goes, one of the major differences that I'm aware of is the amount of vacation time that the average working stiff gets. I get 3 weeks per year plus stat holidays. My understanding is that most Europeans get a lot more than that. If you want a lot of time off of work while still maintaining a good standard of living you need to be a 'high-value' employee here in North America.