[bendermon]

I am neither European nor American and have been living in Copenhagen for about 3.5 years. Here are some observations.

The one big difference is that at the end of the month you would have nothing left to save. And if you plan to move out at a later point you would have neither money nor a useful professional network.

You would not be eligible for most of the good things we hear about socialist states - social housing, paid education.

If you are young and healthy you may not have much to get out of the free healthcare.

Be ready to pay incredibly high rents for private company housing or be homeless constantly, I have moved 9 times in 3.5 years and now I pay more than half my pay in rent+transport to live in a city 100 KMs away (unlimited by expensive).

Language and Credentials: Can be a short term and long term barrier, be ready to start from square one at least on your first job.

Pay: Usually unionised, software engineers earn about average salaries just like everyone else, even though they have diminishing career prospects. I was shocked to learn that CS was the least attractive majors, now I understand why.

Scale and opportunity: There is no critical mass at least in small countries like Denmark so I believe the best opportunities are still the ones in the US, especially if you want to specialise.

I am sure you have heard plenty of the positives of life in Europe and assume it must be the reason for your question.