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Universal healthcare helped get me over there and it's one of the reasons I'll settle down there. I think all the socialized services are great. Excellent value

Universal healthcare helped get me over there and it's one of the reasons I'll settle down there. I think all the socialized services are great. Excellent value for the taxes you pay.

fapjacks 9y ago
Yes! This is another huge misconception about raising taxes: The American government is massively wasteful in spending! We get so little value for the taxes we pay! People don't want to contribute even more money to the wasteful spending, which I can totally understand, but it doesn't have to be that way! In Sweden for example, you get tremendous value for the taxes you pay. The tax rate is higher, but you really do get quite a deal in exchange. Americans are completely unfamiliar with this kind of benefit.
- jessaustin 9y ago
  If it could be guaranteed that a particular program would be administered by Swedes, I'd be more likely to support it...
- ams6110 9y ago
  Why is it that the Swedes don't speak German today?
  - fapjacks 9y ago
    Then you should ask yourself why it is that Germans don't speak Swedish today.
AdrianB1 9y ago
If you pay small taxes and you get great value, good for you. Other people pay much bigger taxes and get nothing in return. Tax based healthcare is robbery, richer people are not sicker and there is no justification to pay for services a percentage of your income. Otherwise you should pay for groceries a percentage of your income, for gas, for rent etc, so in the end everyone is equal in what they can buy. Better than socialist utopia, you can go directly to communism.
- tchaffee 9y ago
  I pay a lot of taxes. It's worth it for me to live in a country with healthy and educated people and that's just the very short list. If you don't value those things, don't live there.
  - AdrianB1 9y ago
    And where do you want me to go? On the Moon? I live in a country where I have a decent salary by US standards, but due to taxation I am on the poverty line, also by US standards. Former east-European communist country, currently just socialist with taxation around 60-70% for all income, no matter how small or big. So, where do I need to go for a decent living?
    - tchaffee 9y ago
      That depends on what kind of work you do. All over the world the average worker is getting paid far less decade by decade if you account for inflation. Is that really a problem with taxes? Or is that a problem of the ever expanding wealth gap? Assuming the salary for your job had kept up with inflation, and that you got a fair share of the productivity gains over the past few decades, you would be above the poverty line. But let's say your taxes could be reduced to something like 40%. Obviously some public services would have to go away. I certainly wouldn't want that to be medical care or public education. Maybe in your country there are problems with corruption and the taxes aren't be used very effectively? Again, that's not a tax problem, that's a corruption problem. If you were getting the benefit of those services, it would be less money out of your pocket and you would have more to spend. > currently just socialist I would also be careful with this category. There is no European country that is socialist. They are all capitalist, with private industry making up the bulk of the economy. There are a few social safety nets and services. But that's not socialism, is it?

Universal healthcare helped get me over there and it's one of the reasons I'll settle down there. I think all the socialized services are great. Excellent value for the taxes you pay.

fapjacks 9y ago

Yes! This is another huge misconception about raising taxes: The American government is massively wasteful in spending! We get so little value for the taxes we pay! People don't want to contribute even more money to the wasteful spending, which I can totally understand, but it doesn't have to be that way! In Sweden for example, you get tremendous value for the taxes you pay. The tax rate is higher, but you really do get quite a deal in exchange. Americans are completely unfamiliar with this kind of benefit.

jessaustin 9y ago
If it could be guaranteed that a particular program would be administered by Swedes, I'd be more likely to support it...
ams6110 9y ago
Why is it that the Swedes don't speak German today?
- fapjacks 9y ago
  Then you should ask yourself why it is that Germans don't speak Swedish today.

AdrianB1 9y ago

If you pay small taxes and you get great value, good for you. Other people pay much bigger taxes and get nothing in return. Tax based healthcare is robbery, richer people are not sicker and there is no justification to pay for services a percentage of your income. Otherwise you should pay for groceries a percentage of your income, for gas, for rent etc, so in the end everyone is equal in what they can buy. Better than socialist utopia, you can go directly to communism.

tchaffee 9y ago
I pay a lot of taxes. It's worth it for me to live in a country with healthy and educated people and that's just the very short list. If you don't value those things, don't live there.
- AdrianB1 9y ago
  And where do you want me to go? On the Moon? I live in a country where I have a decent salary by US standards, but due to taxation I am on the poverty line, also by US standards. Former east-European communist country, currently just socialist with taxation around 60-70% for all income, no matter how small or big. So, where do I need to go for a decent living?
  - tchaffee 9y ago
    That depends on what kind of work you do. All over the world the average worker is getting paid far less decade by decade if you account for inflation. Is that really a problem with taxes? Or is that a problem of the ever expanding wealth gap? Assuming the salary for your job had kept up with inflation, and that you got a fair share of the productivity gains over the past few decades, you would be above the poverty line. But let's say your taxes could be reduced to something like 40%. Obviously some public services would have to go away. I certainly wouldn't want that to be medical care or public education. Maybe in your country there are problems with corruption and the taxes aren't be used very effectively? Again, that's not a tax problem, that's a corruption problem. If you were getting the benefit of those services, it would be less money out of your pocket and you would have more to spend. > currently just socialist I would also be careful with this category. There is no European country that is socialist. They are all capitalist, with private industry making up the bulk of the economy. There are a few social safety nets and services. But that's not socialism, is it?