REF: "I do not understand how a rich country can call itself "developed" if its social system does not provide such basic help to its citizens." 

  
 Actually, Spiri82, I live in the United States and was born with high-frequency hearing loss and did receive a hearing aid ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE through the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitative Services.   

 More to the point, I received the device back when I used to live in Mississippi, which is one of the relatively poorer states in the US.   

 Even more to the point, my hearing loss, while of course a personal source of frustration, is not necessarily debilitating (i.e. I can hear most people fine; it is only when talking to someone who mumbles or otherwise has a soft voice or perhaps when I am in an especially noisy environment that it becomes a problem.).  Thus, it's not as if I was someone who desperately needed the device in order to function normally in society.   But nonetheless, DVRS still helped me out  even though my hearing problem wasn't necessarily terribly severe.   

 So in other words: Yes, we have government aid over here too, and you don't have to be all that extraordinary in order to receive it  you just have to find out where to go to get it.  If your hearing loss affects you on the job you can go to DVRS and they will help you.   

 Now, a question for you: WTF do so many Europeans (usually WESTERN Europeans by the way, not Eastern) act like the most condescending, smug pricks imaginable?  You criticize Americans for being arrogant, but guess where we learned it from?   You motherfuckers are the kings of that shit!   Stop talking smack all the time!   Especially when obviously you don't know what you're talking about.  Geez!