However I don't agree with that analogy in this day and age where countries offer services countries should be seen as corporate entities.
Off-topic, but I recently considered relocating to Germany, and here is a brief synopsis of the main considerations.
I saw figures on the web once saying that in the U.S. government (Federal, state and local) takes about 40% of the income of individuals and in Germany government takes about 50%. Take the figures with a grain of salt because I do not recall where I saw them or who compiled them.
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany, and the law against homeschooling is enforced, making it very difficult to raise children there without sending your children to government schools or to private schools heavily regulated by the government. For example, it is illegal for private schools to pay their teachers less than the pay of teachers in government schools. The result of the heavy regulation of private schools is that almost everyone sends their children to government schools.
It is easier for men to get laid in Germany than in the U.S. I cannot tell you why, but several sources have said so, including a French manufacturer of sex dolls (high-end ones costing thousands each) who said that his company's dolls sell much better in Japan and the U.S. than they do in Europe. His exact words were, "Sex is easier in Europe, but taxes are harder." So if you are a heterosexual man having trouble getting laid in the U.S., moving to France or Germany might solve the problem.
But I see your point.
Also, in 6 out of 10 Canadian provinces, it is illegal to enter into a contract for health services that are publicly funded. (http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/164/6/825) Still not a monopoly?
It will also be interesting to compare the average remuneration for doctors in France and Canada when compared to other countries. I am not saying that the American system is not broken – but France and Canada’s health system isn’t the model to follow.
For interest sake, Canada imports a hell of a lot of doctors. They simply do not train enough doctors to be self sufficient and must rely on the brain drain from 3rd world countries for their staff. (In the province of Saschatewan, more than 50% of doctors are from abroad – most prominently from South Africa).
The amount spend on medical research in Canada is also a lot lower (per capita) than the USA.
The US has incredibly powerful teachers unions as well. The teacher's union is so powerful it's still technically on the Homeland Security list of terrorist organizations.
Yet we don't have healthcare.
Not only that there's a reason why IT and (real) Doctors aren't the most popular jobs (or majors) unlike Business and Psychology, it's because they're the #2 and #1 (respectively) most stressful occupations according to Forbes.
It depends on your definition of bloat. They do consume comparable amounts of GDP and they don't do some things that the US govt does.
However, there's an even bigger difference - both are tiny by comparision to the US govt. Germany would be a big state and Austria a middle-size one.
And, they're about as diverse as Minnesota.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand#Demography
And, we're talking about less than 4.5m people.
Compare it with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Chicago , which has more people than live in all of New Zealand's 4 largest cities and has almost as many people as NZ's 16 main urban areas. And, that's not counting Chicago's suburbs.
Chicago is only moderately diverse for a large American city - there are less than 50 languages spoken by more than 1000 people.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Los_Angeles for diversity (which has more people than all of new zealand's major urban areas, and I'm still ignoring suburbs and other major adjoining cities.)