All of those perks cost money... I'm not a big fan of paying more in taxes, or increasing the national debt to pay for them. Maybe that makes me an asshole.
No, it makes you shortsighted for failing to consider that you also get benefits in return.
+1
I grew up in France, married in Japan, and now live in the US. I have experience as a parent both in Japan and the US, and have seen my parents' happiness in France. I can say the US is where I'm the least happy as a parent, and I think my parents were happier than I am from the parenting perspective.
Here are some of the things that stress me out as a parent in the US:
1) Everything is super expensive for kids, in particular healthcare and school. School is practically free, so is healthcare, in France. Yes, it's indirectly paid with taxes, but it hurts less. I don't want to constantly have to worry about money or college education for my children.
2) Too much choice. My wife had me go through 5 different school choices for our son's Kindergarten. For f#ing kindergarten, people! Some of these options include things like "a la carte" classes such as guitar, swimming pool, or spanish lessons. The rule of thumb in France is you are sent to the public school of your district, end of story (and yup, I know it's the same in the US, except for some reason everyone tries to question or game that rule). Why make things so complicated? I hate having the choice, I hate being led to believe it will make a difference in my child's future (hint: it won't), and I hate that my wife believes it more than I do. Sometimes, choice is bad and leads to conflict. Remember, if you live in the US, you are pretty much guaranteed to end up in the top 1% of income worldwide. Why would you make things painful on kids and parents from such a young age? Let them be kids.
3) There is so much crap to organize. Schools here have "teacher appreciation day"and other random events that the parents are supposed to organize. Give me a break! In Japan and France, school is that place that you send your kids from 9am to 6pm so that you can live your adult life for a few hours.
4) Too much attention for the kids well being in general, while I don't think kids care that much. When I was a kid, my parents would bring me to parties with *their* friends and I played with the kids of *my parents' friends*. Here I feel I have a social obligation to be centered on my children and their friends, having to become friends with the other kids parents. The result is I have to socialize with people with whom I have nothing in common.
In general, the "French" approach to parenting is "the kid is coming as an addition to the family's life, and will have to adapt to the parents habits". I feel some pressure here in the US to the opposite: "parents have to adapt to their child's universe". In my experience, both work ok for the child, but the second one is much more taxing on the parents.
Note: I'm intentionally exaggerating some aspects here, don't take everything I wrote 100% seriously!