I’ll share what a quality life means to me. For context, I grew up middle class, my father was a city employee, and my mother was a stay at home mom for a number of years.
• large emergency fund (zero stress about paying mortgage or losing job).
• I don’t have to look at prices when buying groceries or eating out.
• Time and money for 1-2 vacations per year. At least 1 international. My spouse and I love to visit new places.
• I can work remotely outside the US for 4 weeks internationally per year. I typically stay with my dad’s side of the family (in europe) for 3 weeks each year, while working remotely. Great way to spend lots of family time and not burn vacation time.
• No stress about medical care or costs.
• Ability to start a family without money stress.
• Good work life balance, no more than 40yrs on average. Minimum 3 weeks vacation per year.
• Ability to retire earlier, to pursue hobbies, if i wish.
• Easy access (45 min or less) to quality outdoor recreation on the weekends. Things like hiking, kayaking, etc.
A lot of those are luxuries, but certainly feel like a quality life for me. Yes, I realize how lucky I am. MOST people in the US are not so fortunate. I’m just explaining what quality of life might mean to someone… It’s not about buying pointless junk for me.
I don't know about the EU, but in the UK I know their mortgages are usually fixed for only like 5 years. In the US they are typically 30 year fixed. That can cause a lot of instability when interest rates go up.
I cannot see how the US helps here positively unless you are don't mess up; I have got all you listen with very little effort and no risk (if it failed, I would live very much exactly the same) except maybe the family starting part as I never wanted kids. But the rest I have. I don't have a mortgage to care for either; I don't care for goods (like you), so I have a simple abode with a lot of (hiking and kayaking) land, which happens to cost next to nothing here.
I recently got laid off for the 2nd time in 4 years (probably better off than most, to be honest). I'm done with shooting for the moon. I am now strongly considering a "boring" job - the kind that keeps the basics of society running and has government contracts. I can bootstrap my own moonshots over the weekend (I'm probably going to make split keyboards with Rust firmware FWIW).
So, yeah totally, it can even change for an individual pretty drastically.