Also people who are in top of their fields almost never stay in Europe (especially if they are young) as potential tax burden for top brackets (which aren't that high its mostly middle class in US wealth scale) are enormous and total taxation can be as high as 60-65% (with VAT and local laws [homes, car, fuel]) for 1.5-3x less money then in US or even in some Asian based corporations which directly makes EU stagnant in most of the R&D fields (even in IT i can make like triple the money in US or 1.5x in China corporations).
EU system is good if you are making money not from work but from wealth (rent, stocks etc.) which is only for folks who already make a lot of investments in younger days or just inherit a lot of cash/properties/stocks.
I know US folks love to be angry about their country, but they are in best position for making decent living in the whole world, except possibly some small asian/european states like Switzerland/Singapore etc.