As a European, my personal opinion is that it is because of an overfocus on regulation and underfocus on innovation.

Everybody that I know that has an idea or a business that might be worth something, is moving or trying to move to the US.

The mix of too much regulation, high taxes and difficult access to capital is just too much for most new businesses to handle. So, they are moving somewhere else.

I think, despite the talk about higher quality of life, etc., that is going to make us losers in the long run and actually erode our quality of live. Because we need a productive and innovative economy to keep our living standards.