[starpilot]

I read that the world needs both types of economies. The US is a dynamic, freewheeling sort with the most extremes. You can get incredibly rich, but the bottom has no floor. It's easy to amass capital and to pay workers. Or have western Europe, which is a relatively painful climate for businesses. Taxation for extensive social services is stifling, but at least most of the middle people are OK.

[nicolas_t]

With the problem of western Europe having massive braindrain. A doctor in France who decides to work in China will easily quadruple his salary. likewise in pretty much any country. An engineer in France, working in the US will also triple his salary.

Of course, there's less safety nets, less benefits but for educated people who are part of the upper middle class (doctors, teachers, engineers, etc...), the increase in salary is such that it really makes no sense from an economic standpoint to stay in France.

I'd say it's better only for working class to lower middle class.

[opo]

>... but the bottom has no floor.

That really doesn't represent reality.

The majority of federal spending goes to transfer payments:

>...The federal government spent $2.87 trillion on transfers to individuals in 2017, accounting for 72.2 percent of federal spending.

https://www.concordcoalition.org/issue-brief/troubling-trend...

One estimate is that about 22% of state government is spent on public welfare:

>...Another 22 percent of expenditures went toward public welfare. Public welfare includes spending on means-tested programs, such as Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income.

https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiative...

The people of the US also give a great deal of money to charity:

>...The United States has been the most generous country in the world over the past decade.

>That’s the conclusion of the World Giving Index, a ranking that measured how likely residents of 128 countries were to practice acts of generosity.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-is-the-most-generou...

>...Americans give around 3 percent of our collective income to charity — more than the citizens of any other country. Better yet, these are individual Americans, not the government, who are generating the lion’s share of the contributions.

https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017...