> The biggest single reason for that is the amount of money that the US spends on their 'defense', it is much higher than European countries on a per-capita bas

> The biggest single reason for that is the amount of money that the US spends on their 'defense', it is much higher than European countries on a per-capita basis. The "about the same" numbers are federal spending only, of which about 15% is defense for the US. US state and local govts spend a bit less than the federal govt, but more than enough to swamp the defense numbers and push the per-capita tax burden in the US well over that of the typical EU country, where the "not national" govts don't spend nearly as much. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/ http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/