Europe Can Only Afford Its Welfare State by Heavily Taxing the Non-Wealthy

I was making a serious point about the United States having a very "progressive" fiscal system. The top-20 percent basically pay for government and those in the bottom half are net recipients of that involuntary largesse. I also pointed out a huge difference between the United States and Europe. Governments on the other side of the Atlantic impose much higher burdens on lower-income and middle-class taxpayers.