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> Denmark, with a tax burden of 49.6 percent, stands atop the OECD index. It also happens to be a wonderful place to live, with a high standard of living funded
by jjawssd 9y ago
> Denmark, with a tax burden of 49.6 percent, stands atop the OECD index. It also happens to be a wonderful place to live, with a high standard of living funded by a diversified, high-tech, export-driven economy.
Denmark is NOT a wonderful place to live. It is a stable society where everyone is equally poor except the tax dodgers. Furthermore, the climate is more bleak than Seattle. This article makes Denmark seem like THE place to be. It clearly is not. Just look at where the economic migrants are flocking to. That would be Germany. Furthermore, this article is a blatant propaganda piece. "More government is good for you" is the overriding mantra here. There is no discussion of the downsides of increasing taxation on the population at all. Instead, it is a pure puff piece which is engineered to make Canada seem great because of taxation. The reality is that the Canadians are functionally isolated from the United States. They decide their own policies. They decide their own cultural norms and laws. If anything, it is the decoupling of that region from the rest of the legislative United States that fosters such a wonderful culture localized to north of the US border. It's not taxation that makes Canada great, but jurisdiction and their right to self-determination.
- rubatuga 9y agoIt might be puffy, but it brings up points about how disastrous the attitude about tax cuts in the U.S. is.
- jjawssd 9y agoI agree with you fully. The United States has HUGE problems, and taxes are nowhere near the biggest issue. The United States suffers from enormous cultural heterogeneity, leading to distrust, corruption, and political gridlock.
- Overtonwindow 9y agoPossibly by design, as the political parties and news media find it in their interest to antagonize groups against one another.
- holydude 9y agoThis thousand times. Socialism is an illusion. People should be able to pick their poison but please do not try to put one system above other.
- Newtopian 9y ago"Socialism is an illusion" ... " please do not try to put one system above other" I guess then it's ok to put one below...
- holydude 9y agoI did not mean it like that. I meant it as a personal opinion. I am not writing articles or pushing for a single solution for everyone. I believe every system has strengths but cannot be universally used in any society.
- FullMtlAlcoholc 9y ago>It is a stable society where everyone is equally poor except the tax dodgers. Funny. The family friends I have in Denmark are among the wealthiest people I know. Would you consider yourself as far as someone who lives in Christiania?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wvenable 9y agoThere's basically a single statement about Denmark and it merely an example that a high tax burden isn't universally harmful. A reasonable counterexample would be a country with a high tax rate that is in terrible conditions caused by it rather than pointing out that Denmark isn't perfect (which is a straw man argument in the first place). There conflation of paying taxes and "more government" is also on display on in this comment that isn't true. You can have a large poor government or a large well funded government. I think ultimately the article makes a good point about Canadian's attitude towards taxation and services. Canadian's understand that you get what you pay for. If you want nothing then pay nothing but that means you get poor schools, crumbling roads, and crippling healthcare bills.
- ameister14 9y agoThe article doesn't make a point backed up by data, though. For example, the US spends much more than Canada per capita on schools yet performs worse. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-global-list-study-shows/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-globa...
- Sodman 9y agoExcept that Denmark was named the "Happiest Country to live" in 2016, and got 2nd Happiest country to live in 2017[0]. From the article, this is based on: -social happiness -freedom to make life decisions -generosity & social support -good governance & public trust -honesty -health & life Expectancy -income & income inequality -GDP per capita [0]United Nations World Happiness report http://worldhappiness.report/ http://worldhappiness.report/
- artorias 9y agoDenmark is "happiest" because they consume an otherworldly amount of anti-depressants.