There is a continuum of social systems that can work, and whether it works mainly depends on confounding factors. History, culture fit, geography, neighbours. E.g. Sweden's been an empire most of its history; Bulgaria has been a colony. Check their performance in historical cohort perhaps? Sweden vs Turkey and Bulgaria vs Tajikistan?
Chavez' Venezuela system is well beyond the "habitable range" of governance. To present it as some condemnation of West European welfare states is ridiculous.
And their debts are so high because they had to bail out a deregulated finance sector, which caused a recession and major spike in unemployment, how is that a fault of a welfare state? You might as well argue the financial sector "stole from the future" by creating a decade long downturn. Quite the opportunity cost there.
There are only roughly 28 nations on earth with a GDP per capita over $20,000 for example.
I happen to find what the six or so best managed welfare states in Europe have accomplished, to be impressive. However, for every Sweden in Europe, there are two Bulgarias. Or there's France, which has seen economic stagnation for nearly a generation. Most of the well-managed welfare states have seen zero or near-zero economic growth for nearly a decade at this point, while their debt has exploded vastly higher as they try to fake-maintain their present standard of living by stealing from the future.