Australians do not spend as much on military and welfare, thus their taxes may be lower. We have welfare, section 8 housing, food stamps, etc. We also help a lot of countries around the world. Thus we run deficits and have to borrow money from many sources to pay the difference. We also have a very inefficient bureaucratic system of government agencies. We also have more freedoms that are constantly under attack. Australia has a worse problem with liberals controlling the country vs Americans. They took their semi-automatics away. Don't know about handguns. Parliments suck because the ruling party also controls the leadership of the country. We have more checks and balances with our Republic. House, Senate, President, and the Supreme court are all supposed to be separate. This creates in theory more compromise and not forcing one group to accept what the other group wants.
