“I believe European workers make more money, have more rights and benefits and are therefore more expensive”
Just to nit-pick at you...you are correct that they have a higher fully fringed cost to the employer, but they do not “make more” in net due to their extremely high tax rates. In addition, due to their gov’t policies, they are generally trapped in their jobs, so I wouldn’t consider them as having more rights.
I understand your sentiment tho, the EU fully fringed direct labor rate is extremely costly to employers.
and one benefit is that they get much more vacation than the US.