It’s often not even true that Americans pay a lower tax amount or rate, unless you’re at the richest ends of the scale. (~25 years ago, my wife and I both made

It’s often not even true that Americans pay a lower tax amount or rate, unless you’re at the richest ends of the scale. (~25 years ago, my wife and I both made about $50–55k; she ended up paying a lower total amount of tax in Canada than I did in the US, and I had the shitty American healthcare system with $15 copays. Needless to say, I emigrated.) There are regressive taxes (e.g., sales taxes / VAT) which are certainly lower in America than most of the rest of the world, and some American states deliberately starve their government of income so that they cannot be obligated to provide basic services and instead shift things to user fees.