I was talking about averages, you counter with a very specific example: midwest or southern states software devs. I could counter with Italy, where you can cal

I was talking about averages, you counter with a very specific example: midwest or southern states software devs. I could counter with Italy, where you can call yourself lucky if you get 2000 Euros a month after taxes, as a senior dev. And it's not a particularly cheap country either. I think it's more useful to look at averages, e.g. https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-software-developer-trends https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/it-salaries-sof... Keep in mind that the sums are usually before tax. Income taxes in the US for a 100k salary can be as low as 10%. Add 5% for healthcare and you end up with 85% in your pocket. In Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, they will take 45-55% of your money, especially above 60k; so from a 60k salary in Germany you take home 30k. I would say 30k vs 85k is a lot to make up the difference for "free" college and "free" healthcare. If you could choose free university and then 50 years of 30k income VS 200k in debts and then 50 years of 85k income, what would you choose? But again, my point is that the US education and healthcare have enough funding even with the lower taxation. Funding is not a problem, US has more or similar funding than other developed nations: healthcare, education, welfare benefits.