Europeans working for US based multi national companies can't wait to get a shot at a job for the US entity.
More money, 401k's, more opportunity, higher ceilings, etc.
Some of the cultural factors you mention in Euro countries are that families all live together parents, grandparents, kids, kid in their 40's because unemployment is high, pay is low, and good jobs are far and few between.
Those who have homes have very small homes. Most can't afford cars and don't have them. Pay is low, taxes are high to support the expensive cradle to grave social programs, opportunity for career advancement is limited.
Just look at the Euro's who play the US PGA tour and have relocated to the US.
Opportunity in the US is much higher than in Europe or Canada!
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Ram!
I don't want to get into a political argument here but you make a lot of general statements that simply don't agree with what I observed in my professional interactions in Northern Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries.
We had European offices and several joint or cooperative ventures with European companies. I was technical liason in many of these and frequently spent a week or two at a time in several different plants over the past 30 years, usually a couple trips per year.
It is true that wages are lower but social services and the tax structure combine to even out the effects of that. Contrary to your comment on folks wanting to transfer to US employment, we had virtually NO interest from our international staff in moving here.
Clearly, there ARE always a subset of people interested in improving their econimic situation. That's how this country was built. The "brain drain" and the vision of America as the land of opportunity was very good for the USA.
The cradle to grave social net is a major factor in contributing to unemployment numbers. A lot of citizens simply don't choose to work. The culture is different. Mass consumerism is not the norm. Mass transit is also a normalized part of the society. Auto ownership is not an automatic goal. As you say, much of the population is in urban areas, not spread in suburbs and car ownership can be as much burden as benefit. It's a luxury, not a necessity.
It's just a very DIFFERENT culture and society. It's not an unpleasant life. In fact, a significant number of social commentators have begun to view our lifestyle as unattractive and alarming relative to that of Western Europe. For the average citizen, it's pretty comfortable.
Declining birthrates and population in much of Europe had actually caused labor shortages and immigrant workers were brought in. That pendulum has swung too far, with the current flood of refugees mostly from Moslem countries resulting in large numbers of unemployed who share little common experience with the bulk of European population. . Those newcomers bring great potential for upheaval and disruption because their culture and religion may not blend well with the West for a long time, if ever.
As the birthrate in this country also falls, ( latest statistics indicate White births have fallen to approaching 1.8, below the replacement level in the USA,) the lessons Europe is learning about integrating immigrants into society will bear watching.
At least the large majority of our immigrants share the same religion and a similar culture. Really, the Hispanics are not so much different now from the Irish in the 1870's or the Italians and other Southern Europeans in 1900-1920's. We just need to stir the Melting Pot a while.
One other point: In Europe, the need for an individual 401k is minimalized by the social "safety net." Recruit's post below is pretty much what I saw. There are those who strive to become wealthy and powerful, but when the tax structure aims more at equalizing take home pay instead of rewarding excessive greed, an awful lot of folks have little incentive to strive to maximum income.
They have long vacations and short work weeks and many take much of the Summer off.
There are a lot of worse lives to live than having an average middle class life in a Western European Social Democracy.
