In Europe, income is generally more evenly distributed across various skills, professions, and sectors of the economy.

IMO this makes society here much more pleasant. Personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable living in a society where people who grow, prepare, or serve food, educate children, or maintain the cleanliness of streets are on the brink of survival. Even ignoring empathy which is subjective, unhappy people rarely do a great job. The original article is a good example.

Who says they aren’t stealing?

In poorer countries like Vietnam it’s expected that you will have to bribe airport security & customs