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I don’t think you can count social redistributions because they aren’t job related. You can look at the employer payroll tax side and add that up though, both the USA and Denmark have that.

$22 is slightly more than what a McDonald’s worker earns here in Seattle, if we are comparing Aarhus (I’ve never visited any other cities in Denmark). And probably no vacation.

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$22 in Seattle would give you plenty of cash for a visit to REI headquarters to buy a real nice ultralight tent and dry down sleeping bag that will fit into a small enough backpack that people might not figure out you're homeless.

Drug addicts are the visible homeless in Seattle, they aren’t going to make rent at any price, let alone hold a job (so why not drift to HCOL cities with more generous social services and less enforcement for shop lifting). Functional unhoused who are either crashing on couches, or sleeping in vans or cars. Most people holding jobs, even at $20/hour, actually have housing. It’s not impossible to get at that wage if you aren’t supporting a family at the same time.

I ended up under a tarp at that wage. Then I worked a rotation on a fishing boat and afterwords hitchiked to Eugene where I could actually rent a room from full time labor.

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