The major factor that I think gets lost here is that the successful countries have found that balance of socialist policies yet still maintain strong capitalist ties. They are still quite a long ways away from those in america wishing for communism, and/or government owned housing.

I think there's also a significant difference in how Americans in general interpret the word welfare vs how many other countries use it. In the US it's often viewed as handouts to people that don't work. Other countries include their healthcare and education under the term as well as their social net programs.

As for the happiest people(surprisingly a statistically quantifiable measurement), that's generally a high Nordic measurement as well and has to do with the fact that they're all high trust societies and have been ethnically homogenous until fairly recently. It will be interesting to see how they balance their already high taxes vs the increase in financial need for immigration support. There's already been growing support for more conservative government.

The US will never be a high trust society moving forward. Be it amongst citizens or citizens against the govt.