To make this simple we are going to be following two imaginary girls life. Jane lives in Denmark while Sarah lives in the USA
Jane family pays more in taxes but gets a lot of social programs for it. Sarah family pays less taxes but they also pay for all out these programs out of pocket for a lot more.
Jane has access to high quality preschool for at most 25% of the cost or if they don't make enough then free. Sarah family if they make to much to get Sarah into a head start program then they have to pay for a daycare or leave Sarah with family. Daycare could cost up to 22 thousand a year making it that one of Sarah parents probably would have to take a second job
Jane family would also get $225 per month until Jane turn 7 and $140 per month until she turns 17. This is to everyone no matter income in the hope of helping cover the cost of having children.
Sarah has to maybe move to get into a better public school because some schools in low income or rural school don't get funded completely so don't perform well. Jane doesn't have that problem all of Denmark public schools are funded completely so they are all world class school.
They both go to college. Jane gets free college and a thousand dollars a month for living expenses. Sarah has to take out loans to go to school. The average amount of debt being 38,000 dollars. so Jane goes into the work force with no debt and Sarah with 38k of debt.
They both go into the workforce afterwards. If Sarah is lucky she get 2 weeks of vacation but doesn't necessary as the United states doesn't have any laws mandating it. Jane gets 5 weeks of paid vacation and probably gets a 6th week as many in Denmark get around Christmas plus the 9 federal holidays making Jane get 7 paid weeks of vacation.
Jane will probably make more dollars per hour and work less then Sarah. Sarah will probably work a hour and 15 min for every hour Jane will work just to make the same income. Jane will gets about and a hour and a half more to enjoy herself after work then Sarah does.
If Sarah loses her job she will be entitled to unemployment that pays half what she earned up to 6 months. Jane loses her job and she is entitled to 90% of her income for up to 2 years. And the government will help Jane find a new job and train her if she needs new skills for a job.
If Jane gets injured then she has access to healthcare as Denmark covers everyone. If Sarah gets injured there is probably a giant deductible or copay. Denmark covers everyone with better quality and efficiency than the United states according to world health organization. They also cover everyone unlike the USA who has about 28 million. Denmark also pays for half per person than the USA. Denmark also had private insurance before but had almost 40% of the country was uninsured until they transition to a single payer system.
Jane and Sarah will eventually have a kid. Sarah will probably pay $5000 out of pocket with Jane paying 0. Sarah has no guarantee to paid family leave and if she takes unpaid leave there is no guarantee that her job is their when she comes back.
Jane and her husband will get a full year of paid leave that they get divide between the two of them. Jane will probably have a union contract that allows her to full salary during that time if not the government will pay 600 per week in that time.
Sarah will probably work two more years than Jane before retiring. Jane will make 2/3 what she made before retiring while Sarah will make less than half through social security.
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