This is an anecdote, but I was looking at developer jobs in Europe and the salaries are pathetic. 65k Euros for a senior engineer with a 50% tax rate? Are you fucking kidding me? I can make 250k in the US at a 35% rate. It’s absurd.
No wonder Europe has a brain drain problem...
Besides the northern countries, the tax rate is not 50%. Most countries either have a flat rate that is well below that or have a system where you pay in boxes. Like %30 over the first 20k, then %47 over the remainder etc. On top of that, many countries have countless schemes that result in tax deductions. Like owning a house gets you a discount.
In almost all cases, the effective tax rate falls well below 50%.
Any reference to the european "brain dead"-problem?
https://voxeu.org/article/european-brain-drain is fairly comprehensive, but the idea is that highly skilled people generally go where they're paid the most for their skills.
I'm guessing you mean brain drain. Or is there a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic that I missed? : )
