“I will note at this point, that I distinguish ‘capitalism’ from other methods of free enterprise such as co-ops, credit unions, and employee-owned companies.”

Thank you for making the distinction. I suspect the “happiness index” is significantly better in these types of businesses. Perhaps socialist sympathizers should focus their efforts on making these businesses more prevalent in the United States.

“See the graphic below and you will notice that seven of these countries only pay a small amount more in taxes than we do.”

According to the referenced OEDC website: “Tax wedge is defined as the ratio between the amount of taxes paid by an average single worker (a single person at 100% of average earnings) without children and the corresponding total labour cost for the employer. The average tax wedge measures the extent to which tax on labour income discourages employment. This indicator is measured in percentage of labour cost.” I question the validity of using “tax wedge” to determine the tax burden associated with healthcare and education costs. Consider that in 2018 76.4 million Americans paid no federal income tax although many workers did pay social security and Medicare taxes.