To be fair , the UK and most European countries are freaking TINY . Like , most US states are considerably bigger than most EU COUNTRIES . You also have really great public transit buses , subways , bullet trains , etc . If youre in France , you can hop on the train and take a day trip to Italy , Spain , Germany , Belgium , Switzerland , etc , in just a few hours . In the US , the same amount of time driving on the Freeway wouldnt even take you halfway across most states ! And you HAVE to drive , or if its most then a couple states away , you gotta fly . Taking a passenger train the equivalent distance of France to Switzerland would take 14 hours . And as for buses and subways , even in major cities , they only operate WITHIN the city . So basically , you guys pay a lot more for gas , but you also dont need to drive NEARLY as much or as far .