In the US and Asia, people seem to be trying to claw their way to the top. Not everyone succeeds obviously, but some do, and I'd say many others at the very least improve their lot in life.
In Europe, it feels like most people are just content and satisfied with their current lot in life, and even those that are not, aren't really motivated to significantly change their position in society.
Can't speak to Asia, but the big difference between US and EU is that US has a lot more variance in quality of life. Its quite a bit easier to monetize skills, but its also quite a bit easier to become poor because of lack of social safety nets.
In EU there is very little variance, so most people don't see the value in extra effort that they have to put in to get ahead. Middle class is undoubtably much better off in EU - you have a lot more social safety nets and assistance, and furthermore, because most of the people around you are generally in the same boat financially, the lack of materialism is actually quite good for peoples mental health and finances.
The only caveat is, EU can have this sort of setup in large part due to economic influence of US. A lot of wealth from US is exported to EU, which goes on to fund the social safety nets. You wouldn't think that 2007 housing crisis in US would go on to affect job markets in EU, but it very much did. Also, US pretty much subsidizes military capability development costs for all of EU.
I wonder if it’s a chicken or egg thing too. The same amount of effort it would take to substantially improve your financial situation in the US…does not feel like it would have the same impact in EU. If that’s the case, then I can see people just going “what’s the point?”
In the US and Asia, people seem to be trying to claw their way to the top. Not everyone succeeds obviously, but some do, and I'd say many others at the very least improve their lot in life.
In Europe, it feels like most people are just content and satisfied with their current lot in life, and even those that are not, aren't really motivated to significantly change their position in society.