Anecdata but several of my colleagues moved to other countries (Poland, Switzerland, US…) specifically citing high taxes as the reason.

The middle class is disproportionately squeezed.

Also one thing to consider is that most comments here talk about income tax. On top of that you need to also count all other taxes.

Let’s say the company pays a US style salary for you, around 300k from that your actual gross salary will be only 200k from which the taxable salary will be 160k. That 160k is what you will be paying the income tax on (around 40k)

This is the real reason salaries are lower here compared to the US even though the cost of employment is similar.