I thought thAt Americans pay less tax than us but it seems that the US is very stringent with collecting taxes, and even has loopholes like if you emigrate you still have to pay taxes to the us for ten years.
Also rules like you can't travel abroad if you have a criminal record, suddenly the us doesn't sound so free.
The British approach seems to be that if the amounts aren't meaningful you don't have to declare it, in the US you have to submit w-9 forms for everything, and be damed if your local government imposes a business registration fee of $300 if you have a website making 30 bucks a year on adsense