The advantage of a welfare state to me, personally, is predictability. If I were to get into an accident, break some bones and not be able to work for a few mo

The advantage of a welfare state to me, personally, is predictability. If I were to get into an accident, break some bones and not be able to work for a few months, I would not be charge a large hospital bill. Nor would I lose my salary. You can argue it's sort of an insurance scheme that everyone is forced to be part of. But compared to private health insurances, it's actually very cheap, because _everyone_ is chipping in. So even with much higher tax rates, people of a certain means (say middle class), have a comparable higher disposable income, because our expenses are predictable. (Note that there still exist unforeseen expenses, but they never reach the levels of some hospital bills in the US seen reported.)