Quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Deltoid
I have friends in Denmark that pay approx. 50% of wages in taxes.Yes it includes medical and education, but NEVER assume these programs are FREE.
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I WISH I could pay only 50% of my income in taxes. I have my own business so I don't have wages, just income. But when you consider social security taxes, self-employment taxes, income taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, etc., I would call it a great day if I could keep even half of what I bring home. Consider that for employees your payroll taxes include a Social Security contribution that you see, but also a slightly larger employer contribution that you don't see, and you will start to understand that your income tax burden is quite higher here in the land of the free than you thought.
If you do a true comparison you will find that Europeans a higher percentage of their income in all the various taxes, but they have correspondingly higher services from the government. If you do a regression analysis you find that people in the US actually pay a higher rate of taxes for the services received when you factor in the cost to us of health care vs the benefit of state-paid health care, state subsidized day care, and other benefits the Europeans take for granted.
I don't point this out to suggest that we increase taxes and increase the size of governent in the US; quite the oposite. I would prefer a slimmer, cheaper and more responsive government. I don't think the Europeans get what they pay for, but they get more of what they pay for than we do in the US.