I live in a small central EU country and know many locals who earn $100k+/year contracting. $200+k/year is also possible if you know how to position yourself and have a history of delivering high-grade products.

If you feel unable to find clients try platforms like codementorX. It's a relatively simple way to start earning triple figures and building your technical/communication skills.

I understand that these are outliers as most techies in my country make $30k/year doing java/php cubicle type work, just like most people in the US probably make ~$60k, not $400k as HN would sometimes have you believe.

However, most people (in any profession) are relatively content and not very good at what they do. If you think you're better than that and have evidence that backs your claims — you can definitely earn a lot more.

Perhaps I could help you with your feeling of failure with some data of mine:

I can't post half of my career here due to a technically illegal NDA breaching of which would still result in an long and expensive court battle so here are my numbers:

I got my first real job in early 2012.

2015-2017: €27k (€21.5k after taxes because of magical tax breaks for "new companies" - actually B2B contractors)

2017-present: €31 (€23.4k after taxes)

I currently spend half of my time in Warsaw, Poland and the other half in Bologna, Italy, so my living expenses are low, but not low low, e.g. I rent a studio apartment for €500 + other expenses.

I also reached the hourly rate cap for my position at my company so in order to get a raise I would need to switch jobs, which is what I'm intending to do by the end of the year.

EDIT: Paragraphs

Well, I guess startups are a risky endeavor, and I guess you could make much more in a boring enterprise software job. But the question is whether you really want that.

Also, can't you live quite well from € 70k in France (unless it's Paris)?

Don't worry, I think tech salaries in the US are just massively higher than in Europe. I am not sure why, probably they are just in general better at capitalism, i.e. the companies extract more value from the market, engineers actually switch jobs for a better salary and demand pay raises.

See on glassdoor, developer salaries in Berlin and Paris are 45k€ (and usually no options) while $90k in Seattle.