The problem is you are misunderstanding American politics. The average well educated American understands that the European and Scandanavian models work better than the American system for all Americans. The misunderstanding is the idea that the average American WANTS a better life for ALL Americans. They do not.
The median American wants a better life for the median American. And most educated Americans want better lives for all Americans. But a significant minority of the population wants a WORSE life for the black population. Full stop.
Whenever you read a discussion on some controversial aspect of American politics, that appears to be worse for the population yet strangely controversial to fix, just ask yourself: does this policy disproportionately hurt black people? The people who are currently arguing for the status quo may no longer be racist, just profiteering. But this is the question to ask to determine why the system was put in place the way it was. Remember, if the policy disproportionately hurts poor people, that means it also disproportionately hurts black people.
Attitudes are changing, and hopefully this won't be as large of an issue in the future. But it was only 40 years ago that the FBI's primary political directive was the disenfranchisement of African American organizations, and America's most recent president was a white supremacist. The current most popular TV news journalist in America right now, is Tucker Carlson, who is an active white supremacist.
The current American system adopts enough welfare and social security that if you are white, statistically, social security + your career will probably be enough to ensure that you do not starve in retirement. And it promotes a lack of financial retirement savings such that if you are not white, and therefore statistically have a worse paying career in a more difficult financial environment, you are likely to have a troubled and difficult retirement. This is by design.