Basic unemployment benefits are quite low, but still enough keep you warm, fed and clothed. In fact, you get paid more than I had while studying. You are not forced to liquidate property that doesn't exceed reasonable limits. Loosing your job doesn't bring you on the edge of being homeless.
How much is social insurance in other countries, if it exists at all (does it exist in the US?)?.
It has a bad reputation, but I always thought that Hartz IV is actually quite high. The numbers that are being floated in the press seem very low, but they always forget to mention that on top of that the state also pays the rent and health insurance for Hartz IV recipients. Where the system runs into trouble is when it sabotages the recipients through bureaucracy, for example some are being forced to move to a smaller flat even if it is more expensive. If they don't find something suitable in time or are simply unable to keep up with the bureaucracy, they might end up on the street. In that sense it is rather demeaning to people, but I think the amount of benefits received is probably OK.
Healthcare still works very well for publicly insured people, although I worry for the future and it has some annoyances. But for example I personally am scared of going private because I worry that physicians will do too much useless stuff to my body just to make money (I know enough stories of that kind). Sometimes more is less...
As someone in one of those other Western-European countries, I can only say this is a good thing. If unemployment benefits are so high that the cost of child care, transportation, etc dwarfs the extra income from a real job, you aren't going to work.
Harz IV was harsh, but it allowed the Germans to get their finances right, and they did so timely. Every other European country will face much more serious cuts or go bankrupt. (Or pray to the Germans to pay for their excessive lifestyle, which is what's happening now)
That is asuming your employer has been paying its NI properly my previous one was not and I got nothing.