Here in the Caribbean it's even worse. Our gas stations employ people to fill up your car. I remember when I first traveled to the U.S. as a child and was surprised to see people filling in their own tanks of gas. With my innocent mind, I immediately thought that their quality of living was worse because they had to get out their car and do the labor of filling up their tank. Now I realize that the Caribbean has many of these jobs by force because are employment rates are so low. It's a sad realization.

There are two states in the USA that require gas to be filled by an employee, no self-serve allowed. New Jersey and Oregon. This was put in place as a measure to protect jobs - for better or worse.

The observation is correct. In Europe you have social programs, in America you have gig jobs and Walmart. Walmart even tells its employees how to sign up for all sorts of programs, like food stamps and housing aid, and that's how the taxpayer subsidizes them.