I've been working in Europe for a year and a half and I can say that I am enjoying my job and being paid well for it. Having done a lot of my basic training in the US with American instructors I can safely say that if I was an American I would probably not tried to follow the same career- it realy isn't worth it over there. My instructors were earning at least 2.5x what they would be flying Piper Warriors than E145s at the local regional airline.
All I can say is that thank God its not quite as bad as that over in Europe (yet)