The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism traces how individuals fare over time in each of the three principal types of welfare state. Through unique studies of Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, tracking individuals’ socio-economic fate over ten years, the authors explore issues of economic growth and efficiency, of poverty and inequality, of social integration and social autonomy. The authors argue that the social democratic welfare regime of the Netherlands outperforms the corporatist German regime and the liberal US regime across all these social and economic objectives.