Question

Explain the reason why so many other industrialized nations provide far more social support than the US? What about when it comes to communities and families and their lack of social support compared to others? Explain thoroughly. Must be in your own words.

Answer 1

There are many industrialized nations who provide far more social support than the US because there is ingrained racial segregation in the US which has led to creation of political organizations who are far less concerned about the poor who are mostly disproportionately black. Whereas this is not the case in other industrialized countries, as they are smaller and have a fairly homogenous population base. American organizations don't want to give political power to the poor who are more generally black, and that is why they are not that assertive of creating social support programs.

There is this case in the US that middle class have a greater chance of moving up the chain of income distribution, which makes the redistributive policies redundant as people and government feel that anyone can earn more and work hard and thus prosper on their own, without government support. There are also much more varied communities in the US and fragmented communities have lower social participation rates according to Alesina and LaFerrara 2000 model. There is importance given to material wealth, which makes communities and families also lack social support and individualistic freedom is chosen over depending on communities.

More number of races leads to more segregation and their lack of support for one another which leads to political orgnanizations gaining an advantage and not opting extensively for social support policies as even those who are poor align less with other communities which leads to marginalization and less focus on social programs which focus on everyone equally.

Source: Why Doesn’t The US Have A European-Style Welfare State?: Harvard Institute of Economic Research.: By Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote.