Well, Zurich is everything but representative of Europe. Switzerland has much lower taxes and higher salaries than the rest of Europe.

Switzerland is the closest you can get to USA without leaving Europe. Taxes in Zurich are lower than in the Bay Area, at will employment, healthcare that is primarily funded by flat fees rather than income tax, etc. Even the constitution was originally inspired by the American one.

FWIW Zurich feels like that to me too, and I'm from the Netherlands :)

Yeah, as an American, I think the thing that breaks the American brain is that you can have taxes that don’t just line the pockets of billionaires—that you can pay taxes and get high quality services as a result. There are so many conservative and libertarian Americans who think that taxes are necessarily squandered while they simultaneously elect politicians who insist on squandering taxes so they can prove that taxes will be squandered.