It can be pretty outrageous in the US. You can be in a village full of homeless people, walk 5 miles down the street and there are superstars partying on yachts. Quite bizarre sometimes.
I know, I saw many videos about the USA. Here, you can walk from one side of the city to another and you will think its all one social class.
Sure, some few people will have luxurious cars or houses, some are obviously poorer like having one older or none car and living in some apartment, but all send children to the same schools, for example.
The richer ones are mostly the ones who are not employees, like owners of their own company and such. On the other hand, employees and tenants have strong legal protections and social security, so one can live comfortably both ways.
The extremely poor are mostly uneducated, like having problems even with elementary school, drug addicts, alcoholics etc. If some child from a poor family tries hard, he/she can get fee education including the highest university degrees and move from its poverty. But in some communities, they do not have this culture of discipline, so there will always be poor, even in the best system.
But its not cheap, paying more than half of your gross salary to the system. Plus the VAT (21%) for the most of goods. I can understand Americans that they do not want to pay for others, when they themselves do not use the system as much as the others. Like healthy single men, for example (me) - paying the schools and other social benefits for the children of others, paying health care for people who eat wrong, smoke and drink, paying sick leaves or maternity leaves for others etc. No social system is just to every individual.
