Reply #15: You have a good point [View All]

The Western European countries (along with Australia and Canada) have the best countries to live in right now. In most those countries, if you have a job and lose it, you can count or years or even decades of govt support as long as you need it. Also, if you have an illness, it will not make you destitute, as it might in the USA.

But the reason why most of these countries were able to form these social democracies (and near-social democracies, such as the UK, etc) goes back to WW2, where much of the populace was near destitution. They were all thrown into the cauldron of war, and emerged on the other side as countries where they had a common purpose and had a strong bond with each other. That is why they treat each other well, and why they trust each other. If something like that were to happen in the USA, it might give us a similar govt.

Look at what happened after the Great Depression here in the USA: we got some social programs to help each other out. It we have another catasrophe, we might be able to reform and reshape our govt in the mold of the social democracies.