As a counterexample, I come from the USA and live in the Netherlands. About the only thing that would get me to move back would be removing profit motive and billing overhead from health care and deflating the price of housing.<p>I pay a substantially higher percentage of my income here in taxes than I did in the USA, out of a substantially lower salary than I made in the USA. Still totally worth it to live in a place with functional social services and infrastructure, and affordable (outside Amsterdam) housing.