Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.
The US has even sent like $3k straight into the accounts of every citizen over the course of the pandemic! As far as I'm aware no other major country has done helicopter money like thia
Here that would take care of your health insurance for 2+ years (basically covering your health care for that time regardless of any misfortune that comes your way), or more than half a year of (University) tuition. In US? Probably not so much. Taking into account other welfare benefits, minimum wages, etc would also be interesting.
All I'm saying is to me it doesn't make sense to just look at that 3k and compare it to all other major countries without context.
The topic at hand is "we are dumping money into the economy, how to do it." The curious point is that "give it to people" is an exceedingly rare solution. The primary recipients are banks (2009), large firms... occasionally public works and small businesses.
This was the case in europe and the US, but this time, unusually, a portion of the whole did go to people. In the EU, none did. It wasn't even considered.
The way health or education work is another matter, and it is not a decision Dutch parliamentarians of the current generation made.
The US money only went to households making below a certain threshold. Most other countries dumped heavily into their unemployment programs, sometimes funding full salaries for up to a fourth of the country over what is now looking like a 24 month period of time (see France).
