I rather make more salary and take 6 - 12 months off after 2 years.

The counter is, in the USA, FIRE is a possibility. Few, if any, Software Developers talk about FIRE in Europe.

Pensions in Europe will be under pressure. I doubt they will keep up with inflation. Particularly with stagnant productivity and aging populations.

History has shown its better to have your own savings than rely on public pension systems (this is a long discussion.)

The US simply values software more than anyone else.

I don’t know, man. If your looking to coast, sure, Europe or SA might be a good place to be a dev. If your ambitious the US is better, imo. And this talk about work/life is always so overblown. If you a work for a good company they’ll treat you well. My benefits:

Dental Insurance / Free Breakfast / 5 days a week / Free food / Gym-Wellness Reimbursement / Gym Discount / Health Insurance / Health Savings Account (HSA) ($1000 per year contributed by employer) / Life Insurance / Maternity Leave 16 weeks / On-Site Fitness Classes / On-Site Mother's Room / PTO (Vacation / Personal Days) - Unlimited / Paternity Leave 120 days / Pet Insurance / Sick Time - Unlimited / Vision Insurance / Transport allowance / Phone Bill Reimbursement / 401k- 25% match on the first 1% of base salary / Employee Stock Purchase Program / Roth 401k / Tuition reimbursement /

And these benefits are not even anything special, just standard. I work for a tech company thats not even in the top 25.

Your telling me you would rather make 50k in Spain with higher taxes, than what I have above with 160k?

At least this study restricts itself to salary and is up front about it vs the "make a blanket generalization based on subjective prioritization of various factors" methodology that seems par for the course these days.