Paul Krugman posts to a substack since he's left this gig at the NYT, and he's been writing about the comparison between Europe and the US recently, and that's a big part of his point. The US looks richer but it's really just in the bias of the accounting system. Labor productivity the EU is just as good, but Europe always looks like it's lagging because Euros have just decided to work less per capita - they actually value quality of life so they take time off to live it. Same applies to the fact that public goods are far better in Europe than in the US (healthcare, transportation etc), and finally, social equity is much better in Europe than the US which is a driver of social unhappiness in the US.
And the proof is in recent (well, pre Trump) immigration figures. People came to the US from Western Europe all through the Post WWII era. Few have recently. Euros are only 10% of the immigrant population today and many of them are H1Bs recruited by US industry.