An illustration of a figure falling onto a blue safety net with white stars—some stars are on the floor leaving gaps.

Illustration: Ben Hickey

Feb 25th 2026|WASHINGTON, DC|6 min read

IMAGINE A hard-up family. The mother has given birth to her second child. The government paid for her prenatal care, the birth and her newborn’s medical expenses. She will get four-fifths of her wages during five months of maternity leave and her husband will take three paid months off, both under a government scheme. Later they can count on subsidised child care and child tax credits. By the time her infant son is off to nursery her daughter will be three and can enroll in state-funded pre-kindergarten. Either parent losing their job would be bad, of course, but not catastrophic: unemployment benefits would replace much of their wages for a while. If things got really dire, they could get food assistance.

Signage for Mizuho Bank Ltd., a unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MHFG), at one of the bank's branches in Tokyo, Japan.

America’s welfare state is more European than you think