Most european countries are more or less poor compared to North America.

That probably factors all of the United States. You're probably not realizing this but the US is a socialized state.

The bottom 10% (and many more):

Pay no federal and state taxes (50% of Americans don't have to pay taxes)

Receive free education (pre-school to grade 12)

Receive free money for having childern (tax credit per child per year is $1000, if you have 3 childern you get $3000 check from the IRS-unless you owe taxes but since we're counting only poor people that don't pay taxes this is all free money)

The federal government pays for more than half of all the social welfare programs provided in all the states. Social programs are run the states so there's typically not a federally run program you can compare to other countries.

Let's look a US state that has a lot of very low income people and see what types of assistance you can receive:

North Carolina has a medium income of only $54,000 (38th in the nations).

According to Benefits.gov here are some of the assistance you can get if you are poor:

North Carolina Food Stamp Program: A program that gives out a debit card with money to buy food.

North Carolina Head Start: "Head Start is a federally funded, comprehensive preschool program designed to meet emotional, social, health, nutritional and psychological needs of three and four year olds and their families."

North Carolina Health Choice for Children: " families who have a total household income that is too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to afford rising health insurance premiums are able to get free or reduced price comprehensive health care for their children."

North Carolina Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP): pays, partially, your energy bill for heating.

North Carolina Medicaid Program: "Medicaid is a health insurance program for certain low-income and needy people paid with federal, state, and county dollars. It covers more than 1 million people in our state, including children, the aged, blind, and/or disabled, and people who are eligible to receive federally assisted income maintenance payments. North Carolina Medicaid includes Baby Love for prenatal and infant health care, Health Check for children up to age 21, Carolina ACCESS for managed care, and community alternatives to provide home and community care as a cost-effective alternative to institutionalization. Covered individuals are elderly or disabled individuals, children and their parents, persons needing long-term care and some Medicare recipients."

North Carolina School Breakfast and Lunch Program: free food for childern.

North Carolina Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): "The WIC program provides a combination of nutrition education, supplemental foods, breastfeeding promotion and support, and referrals for health care."

North Carolina Summer Food Service: Free meals for childern when out of school.

North Carolina Unemployment Insurance: Lose job, get money for a time period to look for a new job.

North Carolina Weatherization Assistance Program

North Carolina Work First: a program that gives you money for working, but being underemployeed.

Not to mention North Carolina's very, very generous university grants. The 4 year education at North Carolina State University was basically free for me as the financial assistance grant money I received was more than tuition and fees.

So yeah poor people don't have a lot of money in the US but they do receive a lot of benefits.

Don't get me wrong there's a lot of things we can do to make life better here in the States but it's not Mad Max over here.

/r/europe Thread Link - oecdbetterlifeindex.org