The US has generally lower federal and state income taxes than other well-off countries. The rest of the "fees" that are required to live? Not so much. The US privatizes nearly everything. A private tax is called a "fee" but you have to pay it just the same to live.

You have made excellent points about healthcare, so I'll write about education. My son and wife were in University at the same time (him starting, she finishing) here in social democratic Austria. The cost for each of them was about $250/yr for tuition, plus books (variable).

In the US two college degrees (I'll leave out that our son is finishing his master's at that same low rate) would be about $200k (to keep the math simple). That is after taxes, so pre-tax (at US rates) I'd have to have to earn about $300k before taxes to put two people through university).

If we say I'd worked about 30 years by that time, that is $10k - per year - in additional "taxes" for me.

Otherwise stated, I would have needed to earn $30k per year MORE each and evey year of my working career, starting from the beginning, and put that money away somewhere where it earned as much as inflation so that they could go to university "free."

Should I mention that Vienna has awesome public transportation that is subsidized for everyone and free for young students during the school year? Our son didn't need a car or car insurance to go to school or university. That is another "fee" in the US for another story.