are social differences between U.S., Europe overstated ?
December 30, 2009 - 7:48am
... this guy thinks so, and has some statistical support:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-narcissism-minor-differences
regarding welfare safety nets, I often noted, after living in US and France, that there were many more similarities than people imagined:
Quote:
Everyone has heard that America's welfare state is minimal and paltry compared to those found in Europe. And it is, if the standard is taken to be Sweden or Germany. But compared with the span of social policy within Europe as a whole, by most measures, the United States fits comfortably into the lower half of the European spectrum, alongside Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Of course, when you tally public social spending by measuring monies channeled through the state, America appears at the low end of the European spectrum. That makes sense, because the United States has no universal system of health insurance, nor does it have family allowances, as Europeans do. ....