Same reason they have expensive university, extremely expensive healthcare, for profit prisons, etc, I guess. There's a dog-eat-dog mentality over there which is quite puzzling to us Europeans.
Europe has quite a bit individualism too. Maybe even more when people can freely express themselves without judgment, you know.
But to have individualism for everybody, everybody needs to eat and have a dignified life.
Cutting less lucky people's food and healthcare for penny pinching, or worse religiously followed ideology isn't individualism. It is sadist selfishness. It kills individuality of large swaths of people for a tiny minority's extravagant and boringly repetitive habits.
