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I used to live in Northern Denmark and I have experienced their healthcare first hand and witnessed social welfare which helped my friends and colleagues. And I

by vinni2 9y ago

I used to live in Northern Denmark and I have experienced their healthcare first hand and witnessed social welfare which helped my friends and colleagues. And I still do think this is excessive tax not well justified for the following reasons: 1. I would expect a state of the art public transport in the whole country. The rail system connecting different cities in Denmark is pretty dated and slow. Even using diesel engines in some parts. Now I would expect some part of that 180% tax to be invested here. But the fact is people are often forced to drive with car due to poor public transport connectivity in many places. 2. Even electric cars are not exempt from these high taxes anymore. This eliminates the benefit of the doubt that this was for the good of the environment. 3. The high tax for cars has historical roots. Many in Denmark believe it is no longer necessary today to fund the welfare state. https://www.thelocal.dk/20151120/whats-the-deal-with-denmarks-car-registration-tax https://www.thelocal.dk/20151120/whats-the-deal-with-denmark... 4. These high taxes are also defeating the purpose of keeping the environment clean by creating a huge market for used really old cars which are often the worst polluters. https://mereconomics.com/2016/02/09/on-the-efficiency-of-danish-car-taxes/ https://mereconomics.com/2016/02/09/on-the-efficiency-of-dan... 5. Opinion: It all boils down to having free health care, free education, really good welfare system and not being able to afford a car. Other European countries like Germany seem to have worked out a model which can make all of them affordable to most people. I can go on but got bored.

ljf 9y ago
Car ownership in Denmark is only marginally lower than here in the UK. And not that far behind the rest of Europe. So it obviously doesn't put off those who want a car.
- vinni2 9y ago
  I am not saying people are not buying cars but the 180% or 150% or even 100% tax is not justified. From what I read it is now down to 85% tax which is much better. Dont know about UK my baseline for comparison is Germany (I lived there for 4 years) and I would move back to Germany any day if I can find the same job there. Cost of living, social welfare everything is a good balance between socialism and capitalism there.
  - ljf 9y ago
    Why is it not justified? What you you replace it with, or cut from current government spending. Most Danish on this thread and the few I know have been in support of the tax, which I find interesting.
    - vinni2 9y ago
      If it is so critical for the welfare state why is there even a debate about cutting it? Why was it cut down to 85% from 180%? Also historically the taxes weren’t always this high and the welfare system did just fine. None of the Danes here have given any convincing answer on why they support the higher taxation on car registrations.
      - ljf 9y ago
        I'm not saying it is critical, I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. But as I've said in previous posts on other threads, I'm a boring lefty in favour of high taxation, and I don't expect others to share my bug government viewpoint ;)
        vinni2 9y ago
        > I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. I am not sure what you mean by "external impact" here. You should clarify that first before I can answer your question. Also I hope you will forgive me for not reading your previous posts on other threads! I get that you are in favour of high taxation. I am not against taxation either. But the question is how much higher is acceptable? 200% is acceptable for you? 300%? where do you put the upper limit? How do you measure the cost of driving cars on the society and environment? was 180% by the Danish government justified in this regard? What was the rationale behind that? I haven't gotten answer to this question from any Danes here or in Danish news papers or in person after talking to many Danes while working in Denmark for 8 months. May be it is the whole Scandinavian model to blame. Therefore, I am giving you the example of Germany where taxes on cars are significantly low but at the same time salaries (at least in the tech sector) are comparable to Scandinavia, education is free, healthcare is affordable and cost of living is one of the best in the western world.

by vinni2 9y ago

ljf 9y ago

Car ownership in Denmark is only marginally lower than here in the UK. And not that far behind the rest of Europe. So it obviously doesn't put off those who want a car.

vinni2 9y ago
I am not saying people are not buying cars but the 180% or 150% or even 100% tax is not justified. From what I read it is now down to 85% tax which is much better. Dont know about UK my baseline for comparison is Germany (I lived there for 4 years) and I would move back to Germany any day if I can find the same job there. Cost of living, social welfare everything is a good balance between socialism and capitalism there.
- ljf 9y ago
  Why is it not justified? What you you replace it with, or cut from current government spending. Most Danish on this thread and the few I know have been in support of the tax, which I find interesting.
  - vinni2 9y ago
    If it is so critical for the welfare state why is there even a debate about cutting it? Why was it cut down to 85% from 180%? Also historically the taxes weren’t always this high and the welfare system did just fine. None of the Danes here have given any convincing answer on why they support the higher taxation on car registrations.
    - ljf 9y ago
      I'm not saying it is critical, I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. But as I've said in previous posts on other threads, I'm a boring lefty in favour of high taxation, and I don't expect others to share my bug government viewpoint ;)
      - vinni2 9y ago
        > I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. I am not sure what you mean by "external impact" here. You should clarify that first before I can answer your question. Also I hope you will forgive me for not reading your previous posts on other threads! I get that you are in favour of high taxation. I am not against taxation either. But the question is how much higher is acceptable? 200% is acceptable for you? 300%? where do you put the upper limit? How do you measure the cost of driving cars on the society and environment? was 180% by the Danish government justified in this regard? What was the rationale behind that? I haven't gotten answer to this question from any Danes here or in Danish news papers or in person after talking to many Danes while working in Denmark for 8 months. May be it is the whole Scandinavian model to blame. Therefore, I am giving you the example of Germany where taxes on cars are significantly low but at the same time salaries (at least in the tech sector) are comparable to Scandinavia, education is free, healthcare is affordable and cost of living is one of the best in the western world.