Escaping Capitalism On A Capitalist Salary
American salaries fund European lifestyles, and what we really escape when we go abroad.
The trope that pops up time and time again in the European Industrial Complex®️ (EDIC) crowd is some version of: “American capitalism is why I moved to Spain/France/Italy, where life is BETTER.” Or, “This place was nice until capitalism ruined it.”
First, let me be clear: America has its challenges (lot’s of them). I’m not arguing that completely unregulated free markets are a cure-all. But capitalism isn’t the enemy. In fact, many of the people who’ve moved from the U.S. to Europe (or elsewhere) were able to do so because they, or their parents, had successful careers in the U.S. that gave them the financial freedom to live more or less wherever they wanted.
I begrudge no one their success or the generous salary their employer paid them each year in exchange for writing emails in an overly air-conditioned office. What a time to be alive, right?
What I criticize is decrying the evils of the American capitalist machine while living their dolce vita or la vie en rose... courtesy of that very machine.
The Invisible Hand
Let’s back up. Here’s a very, very brief history of money and the rise of capitalism. Long ago, people bartered by trading eggs, cloth, iron, wheat, or services. But bartering had limits. Goods and time are finite. Then someone had a genius idea: what if we made coins to symbolize value and used those to exchange goods and services? And so, money was born, gradually replacing the barter system and offering more flexibility.
Fast forward to 18th-century Scotland. Enter Adam Smith. He put quill to paper and articulated ideas like the division of labor, self-interest, and the “invisible hand”—the notion that people, motivated by their own needs and wants, end up creating goods and services that meet the needs of others.
This was, and still is, revolutionary. We’re not just trading a dozen eggs for a roll of cloth. We’re creating things people want including food, housing, iPhones, fishing rods, or, bafflingly, a bizarre Fortnite ad campaign for a losing presidential run. People pay for these things with money. Voilà! The invisible hand in action!
The American Dream
America has long been a bastion of capitalism. Americans (and most of our public policy) generally favor limited government, easy credit, and relatively favorable tax treatment for businesses. Why? Because we want business to flourish. When the invisible hand opens a new Panda Express or a freelance graphic design studio, ideally someone’s needs are met, someone gets paid, and people can afford groceries and rent.
But things have gotten... a bit out of (invisible!) hand in the fifty nifty United States. Whether you’re red, blue, or apolitical, the American Dream seems increasingly out of reach. That’s the crux: expats and immigrants who leave the U.S. for Spain or France often say they’re “escaping capitalism.” But capitalism got them there in the first place.
The Reverse Viceroys
I once read about a “digital nomad” living in a Western European country, making an American salary while enjoying life abroad. Spain’s GDP per capita (2023): $33,509.01. The U.S.? $82,769.41 (World Bank). I call this the “reverse viceroy” (sounds spicy, right?).
Americans in France are infamous for snapping up Parisian apartments that even well-off locals like Pierre and Camille can’t afford. Sacré bleu!
France, for its part, has faced massive pension reform protests as their system—much like Social Security in the U.S.—struggles to remain solvent. To his credit, Emmanuel Macron has tried to tackle this.
Italy’s problems? An aging population and a stagnating GDP. The average annual salary in Italy is around $48,000; in the U.S., it’s roughly $80,000 (OECD). Mamma mia! Source.
This is not a treatise on why Europe “sucks.” I don’t think salary, GDP, or purchasing power alone determine quality of life. But financial stability and freedom sure don’t hurt. And bemoaning the very system that enabled your European life is, frankly, smug and provincial.
What We Flee
What many Americans are fleeing isn’t capitalism—it’s the grind. The soaring costs of education, housing, healthcare, and yes, eggs, compared to stagnant wages. Millennials were told to go to college “no matter what” and get good jobs, only to graduate into a recession and hear, “You should work harder,” from Boomers who came of age in a postwar economic boom that was historically unique.
Gen Z graduated into COVID and post-COVID worlds, applying to ghost job listings, facing $2,000 rent for one-bedroom apartments. Boomers, the ones who said “the world doesn’t owe you anything”, just watched their 401(k)s nosedive.
Social trust is low. Civic participation is vanishing. Grown adults spend their days fighting on Facebook and trolling authors on Substack.
It’s not capitalism’s fault. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than perhaps any other system in human history. The real issue? Low social trust, public policy that favors cronyism over entrepreneurship, and a lack of basic goodness and charity.
I don’t care whether you want higher or lower taxes, whether you favor capital gains reforms, or whether you think university endowments should be taxed (good idea, btw!). The issue isn’t capitalism. It’s the decline of civil society.
As Tocqueville observed when he visited America:
“Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly unite together... to hold fetes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries to the antipodes... They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method.”
America lost its way. Expats aren’t fleeing capitalism. They’re fleeing a culture that swapped communities for VC-funded food delivery apps that let you finance getting a burrito delivered (guac is $6, that cool?).
Going to Europe won’t shield you from capitalism. You might enjoy cheaper healthcare and more affordable housing (thanks to heavy regulation and lower wages). But that freedom that got you a sun-drenched European summer? That’s thanks to the almighty dollar and the economic prosperity that let you arbitrage the systems.
James Carville, renowned Democrat strategist, famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And that applies here, too. Without the American economy, many of our expat-maxxing friends wouldn’t be in Europe at all.
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What do you think? Leave a comment, but please be civil.
This is a very good piece, and written with some humor, too. It captures the ubiquitousness of the “limousine liberal” attitude (à la Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic”). Only those with abundance can “afford” to bite the hand that feeds them. Craziness abounds in an atmosphere of affluenza.
Great points! My wife emigrated from Europe and occasionally we flirt with the idea of moving back. But with my expertise being American Employment Laws, I’d be lucky to make a third of my current salary. Sure, my current salary in Europe would give me an incredible life, but being upper middle class in America is much better than Middle Class in Europe.