How does the United States differ from the European Union in how it balances the competing claims of equality and efficiency?

The United States has chosen greater efficiency at the expense of greater equality. In the United States, wages have been allowed to fall and labor markets have been allowed to operate relatively free of government intervention. The result has been lower wages, fewer benefits for workers and a larger gap between the rich and the poor. What has been gained is lower unemployment. The EU has emphasized greater equality rather than greater efficiency. Wages have not been allowed to fall due to minimum wage laws and the government has protected worker's benefits through generous social welfare programs. The gap between the rich and the poor has not increased but it has been at the expense of higher unemployment.