You need money to flourish like everyone else, but you say you're not in it for the money. Then what are you after?
Are you prepared to accept that Europe's socialism (taxes and regulation) are the cause of these low wages? Are you even open to asking yourself if this is true?
Incidentally, how did you choose "socialist_coder" as your username? Are you trying to be facetious by doing so, or are you serious?
I'm not in it for the money as long as I can keep my current quality of life. I enjoy traveling, eating at nice restaurants, buying gadgets, etc.
I remember back when I used to make $65,000 I was not able to do all of those things. I had a lower quality of life.
I'm to the point now where I feel like all my monetary problems are solved. I don't want to go backwards, but I also don't think any additional salary increase is going to increase my happiness.
The reason I was applying for jobs in Europe was because I thought the social benefits outweigh the lower salary. I want to live in a society where there is a good social safety net and where there is less income inequality than in the United States.
I was prepared for a lower salary but I was expecting about 20% lower, not 40%.
Have you read this? I think there's plenty in it that might stretch your mind. Here are two paragraphs taken from his essay almost at random:
"I can remember believing, as a child, that if a few rich people had all the money, it left less for everyone else. Many people seem to continue to believe something like this well into adulthood. This fallacy is usually there in the background when you hear someone talking about how x percent of the population have y percent of the wealth. If you plan to start a startup, then whether you realize it or not, you're planning to disprove the Pie Fallacy."
...
"This is why so many of the best programmers are libertarians. In our world, you sink or swim, and there are no excuses. When those far removed from the creation of wealth-- undergraduates, reporters, politicians-- hear that the richest 5% of the people have half the total wealth, they tend to think injustice! An experienced programmer would be more likely to think is that all? The top 5% of programmers probably write 99% of the good software."
Are you prepared to accept that Europe's socialism (taxes and regulation) are the cause of these low wages? Are you even open to asking yourself if this is true?
Incidentally, how did you choose "socialist_coder" as your username? Are you trying to be facetious by doing so, or are you serious?