The U.S. Social Safety Net Has Improved a Lot

There’s a common misperception that the U.S. is the land of small government, where the poor receive little assistance. To many on the left, the U.S. is a uniquely bad actor, eschewing the enlightened social democracy of Western Europe and leaving the economically unfortunate to suffer. Those on the right tend to take a more positive view of the same notion, trumpeting the U.S.’s small welfare state as evidence of a commitment to free markets and self-reliance.

As with most myths, there is a grain of truth to the idea. With the repeal of the individual health-care mandate, the U.S. has returned to its status as one of the only developed countries not to provide some form of universal health care. The U.S. spends a bit less of its gross domestic product on social spending than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as a whole: