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I will happily pay 45% tax on my salary knowing the Gov has my back in difficult times like these. I'm fortunate enough to still have a job, but I'm happy I liv

I will happily pay 45% tax on my salary knowing the Gov has my back in difficult times like these. I'm fortunate enough to still have a job, but I'm happy I live in Europe.

onetimemanytime 7y ago
In theory if you saved the difference in taxes...but then we don't generally save, but consume. max 2500 pounds. Say for 6 months? A Year? That's 15k to 30k. This is not enough to justify "45%" taxes for life...
- advisedwang 7y ago
  It's not about breaking even financially. It's about knowing you're never going to end up homeless or starving when your luck turns bad.
  - deepbreath 7y ago
    There are plenty of homeless people in London.
    - globular-toast 7y ago
      Being homeless in Britain is essentially a choice. It might be surprising to you but people do actually make that choice.
- mattkrause 7y ago
  It's not just consumption. You (or I) would need to save for worst-case scenarios and get very few economies of scale: you can't have 0.001 of an epidemiologist on retainer. The government can at least pool risk (and everything) over the entire country.
calvinmorrison 7y ago
I'd be shocked is most people on this page who are fully employed devs/techs/etc in the US do not already donate roughly 45% to the government. SS and Federal, plus state (3% for me, and almost 4% for local), now that's just on income, not anything you spend. Again, here we go. 9% sales tax in my municipality, plus individualized taxes on a variety of goods the government deems bad. This includes markups on booze, tobacco, sugary drinks, then we have car registrations, gas taxes, yearly renewal of misc fees like the license for our dog, drivers license ID renewals, then property tax, taxes on utilities like telecom, then we have run of the mill court things like speeding which are 45 tickets that balloon into 200 dollar ones when you add all the fees on top. Fees to file things you are required to file for. yes. I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%.
- HappySweeney 7y ago
  If you consider your healthcare spending as part of your overall tax package (so as to make the comparison apples-to-applies with other countries which mandate that), the picture looks even less rosy.
- onetimemanytime 7y ago
  >>I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%. In other countries then it may be 65% if you count gas taxes etc etc. VAT (sales tax) is 20+% in a lot of countries
- grecy 7y ago
  > I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%. Yep, and you don't get healthcare for that, or post high school education.
- luckylion 7y ago
  > I'd be shocked is most people on this page who are fully employed devs/techs/etc in the US do not already donate roughly 45% to the government. Yeah, but 45% would be federal income tax only in Europe. Social Security, pensions, sales tax etc pp would be on top, and are generally also considerably higher than in the US.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
metaobserver 7y ago
Why would you prefer the government to manage your money instead of investing and saving it yourself?
- ericd 7y ago
  Because government is an easy way to work together on big problems. Things like charity are great, but the participation rate tends to be a whole lot lower than you can get from taxes.
  - metaobserver 7y ago
    The OP was praising high taxes. If he paid lower tax, he would have more money to spend, also on helping others. Do you think it's ethical to force people into charity?
- globular-toast 7y ago
  Simple. I trust the British government to do the right thing more than I trust the likes of HSBC, Microsoft, Google, Unilever and any other company that's built by greedy people whose sole concern is generating profits for themselves and their shareholders.
  - metaobserver 7y ago
    Wait. Do you think it's the right thing now for the FED, ECB and other central banks to print money day and night and eradicate savings of hard working people via inflation? I'm not sure why you bring up those companies in response to my proposal of managing your own money. But since you mention how purely evil those companies are, last time I checked they were employing real people, working on real products and services, supporting their families and contributing to the economy. I'm not a fan of big corp, bit it's not so black and white.
    - globular-toast 7y ago
      I didn't use the word evil so I'm not sure where that's coming from. I pay less than 45% of my income in tax to the government. With the rest I invest a large chunk in the private sector anyway. So I know it's not black and white. But in times like these I'm glad I invest in the government.
tomp 7y ago
I’m only willing to pay the minimum rate that people richer (including wealth) pay. Which is probably around 0%. I think that’s fair, and as long as it stays fair I’m also willing to pay more (20, 40, 50% - as long as noone richer than me is paying less). Taxes as they are now (with exemptions for capital gains) are completely unacceptable to me.

I will happily pay 45% tax on my salary knowing the Gov has my back in difficult times like these. I'm fortunate enough to still have a job, but I'm happy I live in Europe.

onetimemanytime 7y ago

In theory if you saved the difference in taxes...but then we don't generally save, but consume. max 2500 pounds. Say for 6 months? A Year? That's 15k to 30k. This is not enough to justify "45%" taxes for life...

advisedwang 7y ago
It's not about breaking even financially. It's about knowing you're never going to end up homeless or starving when your luck turns bad.
- deepbreath 7y ago
  There are plenty of homeless people in London.
  - globular-toast 7y ago
    Being homeless in Britain is essentially a choice. It might be surprising to you but people do actually make that choice.
mattkrause 7y ago
It's not just consumption. You (or I) would need to save for worst-case scenarios and get very few economies of scale: you can't have 0.001 of an epidemiologist on retainer. The government can at least pool risk (and everything) over the entire country.

calvinmorrison 7y ago

I'd be shocked is most people on this page who are fully employed devs/techs/etc in the US do not already donate roughly 45% to the government. SS and Federal, plus state (3% for me, and almost 4% for local), now that's just on income, not anything you spend. Again, here we go. 9% sales tax in my municipality, plus individualized taxes on a variety of goods the government deems bad. This includes markups on booze, tobacco, sugary drinks, then we have car registrations, gas taxes, yearly renewal of misc fees like the license for our dog, drivers license ID renewals, then property tax, taxes on utilities like telecom, then we have run of the mill court things like speeding which are 45 tickets that balloon into 200 dollar ones when you add all the fees on top. Fees to file things you are required to file for. yes. I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%.

HappySweeney 7y ago
If you consider your healthcare spending as part of your overall tax package (so as to make the comparison apples-to-applies with other countries which mandate that), the picture looks even less rosy.
onetimemanytime 7y ago
>>I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%. In other countries then it may be 65% if you count gas taxes etc etc. VAT (sales tax) is 20+% in a lot of countries
grecy 7y ago
> I bet if we took a full accounting of the taxes we all actually pay in a lump sum, it's closer to 45%. Yep, and you don't get healthcare for that, or post high school education.
luckylion 7y ago
> I'd be shocked is most people on this page who are fully employed devs/techs/etc in the US do not already donate roughly 45% to the government. Yeah, but 45% would be federal income tax only in Europe. Social Security, pensions, sales tax etc pp would be on top, and are generally also considerably higher than in the US.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

metaobserver 7y ago

Why would you prefer the government to manage your money instead of investing and saving it yourself?

ericd 7y ago
Because government is an easy way to work together on big problems. Things like charity are great, but the participation rate tends to be a whole lot lower than you can get from taxes.
- metaobserver 7y ago
  The OP was praising high taxes. If he paid lower tax, he would have more money to spend, also on helping others. Do you think it's ethical to force people into charity?
globular-toast 7y ago
Simple. I trust the British government to do the right thing more than I trust the likes of HSBC, Microsoft, Google, Unilever and any other company that's built by greedy people whose sole concern is generating profits for themselves and their shareholders.
- metaobserver 7y ago
  Wait. Do you think it's the right thing now for the FED, ECB and other central banks to print money day and night and eradicate savings of hard working people via inflation? I'm not sure why you bring up those companies in response to my proposal of managing your own money. But since you mention how purely evil those companies are, last time I checked they were employing real people, working on real products and services, supporting their families and contributing to the economy. I'm not a fan of big corp, bit it's not so black and white.
  - globular-toast 7y ago
    I didn't use the word evil so I'm not sure where that's coming from. I pay less than 45% of my income in tax to the government. With the rest I invest a large chunk in the private sector anyway. So I know it's not black and white. But in times like these I'm glad I invest in the government.

tomp 7y ago

I’m only willing to pay the minimum rate that people richer (including wealth) pay. Which is probably around 0%. I think that’s fair, and as long as it stays fair I’m also willing to pay more (20, 40, 50% - as long as noone richer than me is paying less). Taxes as they are now (with exemptions for capital gains) are completely unacceptable to me.