Americans have a perception that Europeans pay much higher taxes than we do. It's perhaps true in certain countries in certain times for certain kinds of income

Americans have a perception that Europeans pay much higher taxes than we do. It's perhaps true in certain countries in certain times for certain kinds of income but generally speaking the rates are quite comparable. What's worse is: Europeans get way more for their taxes: namely medical which is 18% of the American GDP. In other words even if our taxes were way lower than their's (which they aren't) the medical piece likely would make up for it. The key reason our taxes are so high compared to their's (I believe) boils down to military spending. I think you can make an argument that America's massive (more than everyone else combined) military spending is benefiting the whole world's stability and in that sense Americans subsidize the whole world through our taxes. But this means our taxes are inherently quite high.