Nearly half the federal budget is spent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And there are numerous other programs: unemployment, housing assistance, snap, etc.
There are also state and local programs as well as private charities.
Meanwhile a healthy, young, gainfully employed person in France can take advantage of a wealth of social services and benefits.
Mentioning them the way you have requires a very uncharitable interpretation of the previous posters point.
If they have such an amazing welfare system, then why are the French perennially rioting[1]? And why do so many recent French presidents have abysmal approval ratings[2]?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unr...
[2] Macron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Emmanue...
Hollande: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Hollande#Approva...
Sarkozy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Nicolas_Sarkozy#...
Also, the US is also constantly protesting too. What do you think Black Lives Matter, the Google Walkout, the Amazon protests in NYC, the current and ongoing unrest surrounding ICE camps, and the teachers union strike in LA are?
because they are alive and free.
To be fair we are also a much larger country with more diversity (especially of culture) than many countries with robust social safety nets.
Basically what I want to know is, if I don’t have health insurance through my employer, make $50K a year, and get cancer, what happens? I don’t know for sure but here in the US I’m guessing the answer would be mountains of debt.
You must apply to a charity such as a catholic hospital that provides care for such cases. I know people with expensive conditions that have done this.
If it gets so bad that you become disabled, you can get social security.
If you run up a mountain of debt you can get rid of it (and your credit rating) via bankruptcy.
