Where to start? The socialist completely misses the point. There are of course differences between the United States and Europe in terms of welfare services and income inequality, but both are equally bad. Both the U.S. and Europe have highly statest economies, which interfere with the free market. It’s just that this interference differs in some respects.
First, their similarities. They are alike in that they both have fiat currencies, they both allow the creation of fiduciary media through a fractional reserve banking system, they both have central banking systems, and they both monetize their debt with the use of a printing press. All of this leads to expansions of their respective money supplies, which not ony results in misallocations of capital, but also a tendency for those individuals who get the newly created money first to become wealthier than those on fixed incomes. Financiers, bankers, the corporate elite, and those who are politically connected prosper, while everyone else is robbed. The rich become richer and the poor and middle class poorer. This problem is a direct result of each governments meddling in the banking system, a meddling that eradicates honest money and increases the size and power of government.
The difference between the United States and Europe is in how they deal with this problem, a problem entirely of their own making. Europe resorts to a highly socialized welfare state, which redistributes the wealth, but introduces further meddling in other areas of the economy. Taxation, government regulation on businesses, state support for workers and a welfare state, level income distribution, but introduce further misallocations of capital and stifle the creation of overall wealth. The United States of course has taxation, regulation and a welfare state too, but in less measure, with the result that the average per capita income in the United States is higher than in Europe, but income distribution remains more unequal. Put simply, they’re both highly statist, but Europe is more socialist, while America is more fascist.
The fact of the matter is that in a truly free-market “liassez-faire” and libertarian economy there wouldn’t be a fiat currency, a fractional reserve banking system or a central bank. People would have to obtain wealth honestly, through the “economic means” rather than the “political means”. Income inequality would exist, but a person’s wealth would be based on merit. It’s probable that such a society would be far more equitable than the corrupt system that exits on both continents today, but in any event, with no government regulation, taxation, and no welfare state, with private enterprise providing existing government “services” far more efficiently and with individuals and families taking personal responsibility for their own welfare, it is an absolute certainty that average wealth would be much higher and overall welfare much greater.