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I really don't like the whole blowing-my-own-horn (although if I could do it naturally, you'd never hear from me again) thing, but read up on Australia's distribution of welfare, and our various state paid for social programs.
Our culture is as close to American as you can get (except maybe Canada's), but our Governments generally believe in socialistic spending and responsibility.
Tertiary education is government subsidized, prisons have excellent education facilities for trades and IT (go figure) so people can get a real life afterwards if they want to, a welfare-to-work program (although this has its own issues in that it hides jobs that could otherwise pay a real wage), decent public medical coverage (except dental), etc etc.
And as a per-capita thing, we have less money in our economy than America does.
It's all a matter of spending priorities... Unfortunately, American governments always end up in thrall of the lobby groups due to the way that your electoral system works (yes, these issues are intertwined).
Then there's also the sad fact that, from a historical basis, America's economy actually relies on 20% of the work force to be slaves. I know it's a horrible thing to say, but I get the feeling if you compared current minimum wages against what black slaves on plantations got, the economic value of the slaves' clothes, board & feed might actually be more than the equivalent of today's minimum wage.
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After 10,000 years I'm free!
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