You can't compare US wages to Sweden and the UK. Those countries have robust health care and high quality public education. In the US you're going to pay a lot for those things (or go without and really suffer).
That depends on whether you're quoting pre-tax or net wages. Those robust health care and public education systems come out of people's taxes, after all.
They do come out of taxes, but the tax based systems are more efficient and if you lose your job you don't have to worry about losing coverage. That's a big deal, especially for people working in high risk trade jobs where injury is common.
