“The largest difference between the US and Europe is in the area of transfers to households and subsidies. In fact, the sum of these two categories of spending is almost twice as large a share of GDP: 20 per cent in Europe vs. 11 per cent for the US.”
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“In continental Europe the minimum wage is between 50 and 60 per cent of average wage (between 40 and 50 in the UK), while in the US it is between 30 and 40 percent.”
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“The greater inequality in the US does not come from the top decile being particularly wealthy relative to the median, but much more from the bottom decile being particularly poor.”
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“This approach is used in many European countries as a definition of the ‘poverty line.’ Depending on the criteria used, this fraction was around 17-18 in the US in the eighties, against values of 5 to 8 per cent in Sweden and Germany for example”
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“In the US, eleven percent of respondents say that they participated in a charitable group over the last year. Across the European countries in the survey the average is 4 percent.”
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“Charitable contributions in the US total $190 billion or $691 per person. Per capita giving is reported as $141 in the UK and $57 for Europe as a whole.”
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“The proportional representation that exists in several European countries makes it easier for parties focusing on the poorest citizens to exist”
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“We do not have a one person one vote rule, which underlies the model’s results, but something closer to a one dollar one vote rule.”
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“According to the World Values Survey, seventy one percent of Americans believe that the poor have a chance to escape from poverty. According to the same survey, only forty percent of Europeans believe that the poor can escape poverty.”
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“The US is a larger and less open economy than any European country, but the US economy is less stable than the average European economy.”
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“Both in terms of growth, unemployment and productivity, the US economy has displayed more volatility than the average of the European countries in the last 40 years.”
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“The hypothesis tested is that universal transfer programs should be larger in more proportional electoral systems. Both MFPR and PT report results consistent with this hypothesis”
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“The bottom line seems to be that for OECD countries a measure of proportionality of the electoral system is highly correlated with the amount of government transfers.”
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“There are three “monumental” historical forces that distinguish the US from Europe. The Civil War, the “open frontier” in the west, and the nonexistence of a large and influential Socialist or Communist party.”
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“US courts systematically rejected any legislation that was perceived as anti-business. In doing so they appealed to the principle of protection of private property against government intervention (often the doctrine of freedom of contract was invoked).”
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“The pro-property actions of the courts were influenced both by the US constitution, which was designed by property owners, in part, to protect property from democracy, and by incentives that firms created to influence judges.”
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“The involvement of Courts in social legislation in the US has been a constant feature of the US experience, contrary to that of countries based on the French or German legal tradition.”
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“The open frontier strengthened individualistic feelings and beliefs in equality of opportunities, rather than equality of outcomes. In fact, one may argue that self-selection led to a systematic difference between those Europeans who migrated to the US and those who didn’t.”
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“Redistribution in many contexts is a response to the physical power of the poor and the threat of riot and revolution. Acemoglu and Robinson (1999) argue that democracy in Europe is itself a response to the physical power of the poor.”
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“While America was full of class-related violence in the late 19th century (see Skowronek, 1982), and saw riots in the 1930s and 1960s, American decentralization has generally meant that the US has never had a rebellion that threatened the centers of government.”
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“The fact that the American working class was formed by waves of immigration also contributed to preventing the formation of a European style class consciousness”
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“The Great Depression could have galvanized socialist ideals. However, with the New Deal, Roosevelt and the Democratic party managed to “co-opt” important fringes of the left which might otherwise have strengthened the Socialist party.”
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“The authors of the constitution make it clear in the Federalist papers that they are disturbed by the possibility that in an unfettered democracy ‘measures are too often decided, not according to the rights of the minor party; but by the force of an over-bearing majority.’”
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“As such, they tried to design the constitution to protect ‘private rights’ against factions, even if those factions include the majority of the population.”
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“In the pre-modern era, electoral rules designed by elites customarily attempted to protect property against majoritarian redistribution. However, the big difference is greater American stability which means that 18th century rules are still in effect.”
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“The history of American welfare suggests that enemies of welfare often used race to defeat attempts at redistribution in the post-bellum period.”
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“Luttmer (2001) finds that support for welfare is higher among people who live near to many welfare recipients who are of the same race. Conversely, support for welfare is lower among people who live near welfare recipients who are of a different race.”
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“States that are more ethnically fragmented spend a smaller fraction of their budget on social services and productive public goods, and more on crime prevention”
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“People in big cities appear to be much more pro-welfare, probably because people in those cities are more likely to live around the poor.”
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White “people who have had blacks over to dinner are indeed more likely to support increased welfare”
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