Joseph: What <i>you</i> are saying is patently false. I suggest you speak to some American full-time learners to find out what they get through federal programs.
WIC gives formula, milk, orange juice, cereal and little else and stops when the child turns three. In contrast, Israel has Tipat Chalav.
There’s no socialized healthcare in the US. If you’re not insured (which can be hundreds of dollars a month) any medical problem is prohibitively expensive. Medicare is terrible and pays a percentage of any hospital bill. The Israeli system pays for virtually all of any medical costs, from hospital stays, to doctors visits, to any required drugs. Having a single baby in the US can set a family back thousands of dollars in the first month, even on Medicare.
Food stamps and Welfare are also mirrored in similar programs in Israel. Section 8 is a joke, either you go on a 10 year waiting list for a tiny apartment near a frum community, you move in with gangsters next door to you, or you do something illegal and probably assur to cheat your way in. There’s no Kiryat Sefer apartment for sale for 90,000 dollars.
Then there’s cost of living which is much higher in the US than Israel. One example is transportation. Either you live in an expensive metropolitan area (i.e. Brooklyn) or you buy a car. There’s no other option.
Not to mention that parents pay nearly nothing for tuition compared to the US. The government pays nothing to US kollels, all the funding is through tzedaka. Ma she’ein kein in Israel where every yungerman gets a stipend. To live full time in kollel without outside support in Eretz Yisroel is very very difficult, nobody is denying that. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the difficulties of doing it in the US.