Germany, The Economic Powerhouse of Europe

Want to know how much European-style social programs cost?  Here's how much:

Germany's per capita GDP

Germany gdp per capita for 2020 was $45,724, a 1.6% decline from 2019.

Germany gdp per capita for 2019 was $46,468, a 2.81% decline from 2018.

US States per capita GDP (in 2019 dollars)

 

Bottom line:  If Germany, the “economic powerhouse of Europe”, were the 51st US state, its per capita GDP would place it 47th in the country, ahead of only Idaho, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Mississippi.  The UK would beat only Mississippi.  France wouldn't even beat Mississippi.  Denmark would be near the middle of the pack,  Sweden would be near the bottom, and Norway (with its North Sea oil revenue) would be near the top.

That's how much the social welfare state eats up.

Update, 10/26/21:  People can't/won't be generous when government takes too much of their income:

Yet by nearly every measure Americans are more generous with their money and time than anyone — including Europeans. 

Indeed, American charitable giving exceeds the entire GDP of most European countries. 

According to the Almanac of American Philanthropy, Americans donate around seven times as much as continental Europeans to charitable causes per capita. Per person, even after adjusting for differences in household income, Americans donate twice as much of their income as the Dutch, three times as much as the French, five times as much as Germans, and ten times that of Italians...

The entire nation is altruistic, though the more religious the population, the more it gives. But even 40 percent of secular Americans give to charity, still better than most European nations...

Europeans will, no doubt, argue that they already give charity in high taxes that fund big social safety nets. The data shows, however, that in overall spending, there isn’t much difference between the United States and other developed nations — each redistributing 20 percent of GDP. Once added in with the massive amount of charity, there is no comparing American generosity — the only difference is that most of ours is not a state obligation.