Dunno why everybody is using this thread to compare the EU to the US, as if I cared about how it is in the US.

I'm telling you I pay over half my salary in taxes and get little in return. Whatever happens in the US is not my problem.

> Dunno why everybody is using this thread to compare the EU to the US, as if I cared about how it is in the US.

Because the comment that you replied to was comparing the EU to the US: "And everyone benefits from this kind of collective solidarity - our societies are far less combative (both in the literal and the proverbial sense) than the US are."

You dont have student loans in the EU because the universities are subsidized...

There are student loans in the EU, because subsidizing universities doesn't extend to providing free food and housing for students. E.g. student loans offered by a German state-owned bank: https://www.kfw.de/inlandsfoerderung/Privatpersonen/Studiere...

Tuition is subsidized. But I don't know about you, but living expenses for 1 year are often as much or more than public college tuition in the US.

Really? Nobody has gone bankrupt due to health issues?

Because in Canada, which has universal health insurance, medical bankruptcies are 25% of all bankruptcies for those over 55.

Why? Because if you're sick enough, you can't work. You can go on unemployment, but it's capped and doesn't replace 100% of your income. So if you're living paycheck to paycheck, it's not that hard to go bankrupt if you don't have the income to pay your mortgage, car loan, etc.