That index is a joke. For one thing, the U.N. has a bias against the United States. John Stossel did an expose on this index and found that several of the factors were chosen in such a way as to make the United States purposely look bad.
For another thing, how many of those countries have to support a massive amount of illegal immigration from third-world countries? Maybe France and they are pretty close to us on that index.
And then you have the fact that several of the countries above us are no bigger than a single U.S. state. How can you possibly compare a tiny country against the entire United States? Last I heard, something like 99% of Icelanders are of Icelandic heritage. No way you can compare that to the melting pot of the United States. And where are the big socialist countries like China and Russia? Thought so.
The U.S. also supports a massive military. All those countries above us rely on the U.S. military to keep them safe.
When you factor in all that, the U.S. is doing pretty darn well on an index that was purposely designed to make us look bad.
As for making the U.S. more socialist, I would like to see the rich* get taxed more. The rich* are taking more and more of the pie and should get taxed more.
*The rich are defined as those making more than me.
