The authors find that the social welfare system in the U.S. differs widely from the systems in the other advanced industrial nations they surveyed. In the U.S., social welfare spending draws on both public and private resources; in Europe, government mainly controls the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance. The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.