I thought that when I visited America. Streets in many towns look like this [0].
In much of Europe, you'd need to be in a very rural area for the power lines to be above ground. It's a bit more common for telephone lines to be above ground, but that's still something seen in villages rather than towns.
Switzerland (the geneve/lausanne area) has a lot of overhead wiring too. I must say, you never appreciate underground wiring until you no longer have it and a storm picks up. I would consistently lose power whenever there was a big storm. Hardly ever happened when I had underground wiring.
That's interesting, since it seems to be the opposite in the US. I always assumed that was because it was cheaper to run lines on poles rather than doing the digging that could be dozens and dozens of miles. What makes it different, I wonder?
Part of it has to be that our infrastructure is among the oldest (presumably the same reason we use a form of power socket with relatively few safety features to prevent electrocution, still have lead pipes in places, etc.).
Are those wires really 80 years old though? [1] (just the abstract) suggests overhead wires need replacement after 50 years. In any case, towns in Europe were electrified at a similar time to America. (Rural areas probably aren't comparable, with the bigger distances in the US being the reason Europe was first for this.)
Probably most of them are not, but I would imagine that the upkeep has been done in a largely piecemeal basis rather than them regularly redoing everything.
In much of Europe, you'd need to be in a very rural area for the power lines to be above ground. It's a bit more common for telephone lines to be above ground, but that's still something seen in villages rather than towns.
[0] https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016... or https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jp...