Very high taxes. Works out great if you have children. Does not work out so great if you don't have children. The state should use taxes to subsidize the behavi

Very high taxes. Works out great if you have children. Does not work out so great if you don't have children. The state should use taxes to subsidize the behavior it wants its citizens to engage in. Population growth is generally considered 'very important' (and historically it unquestionably was #1, but today its questionable). The U.S. attempts to do the same thing through its tax code with lots of additional subsidies for parents. Keep in mind that a large portion of childcare expenses are directly reimbursed on those parents tax returns so the $1500 in America weighed against the $250 in Europe needs to be adjusted for the very high tax in Europe (as high as 59% I think, but am no expert in the EU) and the large reimbursement in America in order to get a truly comparable price point. Of course reality is much more complicated than that and there will cohorts of 'winners' and 'losers' under both systems. You need to take into account the various cohorts if you want to know which system is better for an individual scenario (ie the lived experience we all see the world through): Poor/Rich No children, 1 child, 5 children etc. Grandparents living next door, Grandparents living across the country. And many other factors.