> Lets ask this question in the other direction. How is it in most modern economies you are able to have good healthcare, a robust safety net... Because they t

> Lets ask this question in the other direction. How is it in most modern economies you are able to have good healthcare, a robust safety net... Because they tax the middle class intensively. In particular they have tax regimes built more around the Value Added Tax (which taxes consumption) and less around the income tax (which damages incentives to save and invest and which is easily bypassed by billionaires who simply borrow the money they spend without realizing income). If anything, the Nordic states with their lauded safety nets are more market- and capital-friendly than the US, and less economic-interventionist, and happy to say so. It's not all roses. Competent government still matters; there are plenty of debt crises and pension crises and the like in certain nations without it. Overall, families are somewhat less well-off financially, and high youth unemployment remains a chronic problem.