Even though the amount of taxes you pay might not be that far off from European countries there's a big difference in how much of that money is used on welfare.

Even though the amount of taxes you pay might not be that far off from European countries there's a big difference in how much of that money is used on welfare. See this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state#Welfare_expenditure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state#Welfare_expenditu... For example according to this table Germany spends 27.4% of GDP on welfare (excluding education), while the US only spends 14.8% of GDP.