Not parent, but agree with your first point, want to run some numbers on the second. According to https://www.compareyourcountry.org/social-expenditure https://

Not parent, but agree with your first point, want to run some numbers on the second. According to https://www.compareyourcountry.org/social-expenditure https://www.compareyourcountry.org/social-expenditure (which is sourced from OECD) Australia and the US spend similar amounts of GDP on social programs. I'm gonna punt on the healthcare question - our healthcare is on average twice as expensive as everywhere else yet not any more effective, so it's a bit trickier to compare. Australia has universal health care, and we don't, anyhow. From a personal anecdote point of view, anyone I know who is/was broke (and working cheaper jobs that don't offer health care) continually puts off going to the doctor due to the great personal expense. That's the biggest thing as far as the "no safety net" meme goes - if you're working, you'd better not get sick. And this was after the introduction of the ACA.