4 ms·
Aren't most countries just as bad with govt bureaucracy? Which do you have in mind as way better?
by xenophanes 17y ago
Aren't most countries just as bad with govt bureaucracy? Which do you have in mind as way better?
- tocomment 17y agoI'd love to see a list with all the countries ranked on everything you could want to know. I have no idea how to comparison shop right now.
- chasingsparks 17y agoThe economic freedom of the world reports by the Fraiser institute provide rankings based on things like costs of tax compliance, respect for contracts, legal systems, etc. The country tables can be found at: http://www.freetheworld.com/2009/reports/world/EFW2009_ch4.pdf http://www.freetheworld.com/2009/reports/world/EFW2009_ch4.p... All chapters, including collection methodology can be found: http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html
- tocomment 17y agoExcellent, now cross reference that with the difficulty of obtaining citzenship/work visa for each country for an American and I'll be all set.
- bd_at_rivenhill 17y agoJust go to Hong Kong.
- jbellis 17y ago"Index of Economic Freedom." http://www.heritage.org/index/ http://www.heritage.org/index/ Methodology is explained in detail on the site.
- icey 17y agoIt's odd to see so many countries rank higher than us that are normally thought of as having significantly higher taxes than us. (Fair amount of "socialist" in that list, too)
- lutorm 17y agoMaybe economic freedom has nothing to do with how much taxes you pay...
- anamax 17y agoAmericans don't pay less in taxes, they just get less services. http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/03/taxes-per-person.html http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/03/taxes-per-person.html
- jbellis 17y agoPartly that's because while US personal taxes are middle-of-the-pack-ish, their corporate tax rate of 35% is behind only Japan: http://alhambrainvestments.com/blog/2009/01/29/corporate-tax-rates-by-country-oecd/ http://alhambrainvestments.com/blog/2009/01/29/corporate-tax... (And partly it's because there's a lot more that goes into the ranking than just tax rate.)
- xenophanes 17y ago8th place isn't so bad. Doesn't seem worth emigrating over, for most people.
- fnid2 17y agoThe trend is negative, so it's only a matter of time.
- arohner 17y agoI don't think the calculation for "economic freedom" works the same for HN-ers. All of the places above the US have either significant political problems (China, Singapore) or are much worse for startups. I would gladly move out of the US, if there was someplace significantly better. There isn't right now.
- cb18 17y agoWhy bother with a "country"? Remember this global networked communication thing we've got going?
- nitrogen 17y agoRegardless of what you call yourself on the Internet, someone's going to want to tax you. Sometimes I wish I could just move "online" and not have to worry about issues like borders, countries, taxes, and governments, paying for services as I need them and incurring no burden on anyone that I don't pay for directly. Until that becomes possible I'll just do the best job possible to be accurate and honest with my finances. Alas, bridges to nowhere have to be funded somehow. Edit: Not to mention that any country that the Internet's light pipes run through will want to control those pipes, pass laws limiting what can be done with them, etc.
- pyre 17y agoInfrastructure costs have to be paid somehow. Though a lot of the money is squandered on crap like 'bridges to nowhere,' there are other more deserving projects that languish (like maintaining our current bridges/infrastructure).