Great Graphic: Social Protection as Percent of GDP

A interesting great graphic from Wikipedia of the expenditures on social protection of a number of European countries.  The results may be a bit surprising.  It suggests that wealthier countries can afford to give their citizens a greater basket of goods thna less wealthy countries.  It also suggests that the periphery spending is not over-the-top as the conventional narrative would suggest.  This is not to deny the need of structural reforms, but rather to note the situation is more complicated than the profligate state spending claims would have us believe.