The NY Times has an article called "Going Dutch" in which an American explains where his Dutch taxes go.  He at first resented the 52% tax, but then started to get surprise checks in the mail including a big one to use for vacations on top of the pay he would continue to receive from his employer while on vacation.  Check out the beautiful Dutch hybrid that melds a capitalist free market with a little social well being.
Going Dutch

The story of the Dutch fits into the theme of "What Makes Us Free?" that I'm continually pondering.  "Purebreds and Mongrels" is a theme I've also written on before.  The economist Milton Friedman and his spawn concocted a junk theory of free market capitalism and proceeded to anoint it with holy oil and decree it pure.  Economists who disagreed were considered mongrels. These mongrels growled that the markets were chaotic and hardly pure.  So they argued that it was probably a good idea for the state to herd them a little and create an atmosphere where people didn't "fear the future".  The state should "liberate" its citizens from that fear. Some people, like the Dutch, devised a system to alleviate "fear" by having some safety nets. You can't get turned down for health care and there are no co-pays. If you get sick, you don't lose your house.     When you retire, you can live a decent life.

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