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It is very often Americans themselves who seed the "low tax meme" in order to criticize European social democracies. Those profiles tend to be right-wing. They

by axlee 7y ago

It is very often Americans themselves who seed the "low tax meme" in order to criticize European social democracies. Those profiles tend to be right-wing. They have drunk their own kool-aid.

AndrewUnmuted 7y ago
Well, if you’re referring to places like Denmark, it is true that most Americans pay nowhere near those income tax rates. I can’t see a lot of right wingers in the US suggesting we have low taxes. Conservative talking points frequently address the desire to lower tax rates in the US because they claim they’re too high as it is.
umanwizard 7y ago
Left-leaning Americans do the same thing. “Why don’t we just tax the rich, like they do in Europe, so that the government can provide services!” which doesn’t recognize that the problem is actually different and more complicated. “The US wastes massive amounts of resources for very poor levels of service, and nobody has any idea how to fix it” isn’t as nice of a sound byte.
- thebooktocome 7y ago
  Not being able to recover revenue from wealthy people who can afford to bend or break the tax code is a problem. The IRS can effectively make money for the federal government simply by auditing the rich (I seem to remember that the marginal dollar spent on enforcement returned six dollars in revenue), but they don't because politics.
leetcrew 7y ago
there's some truth to it. in general, european countries have less progressive tax regimes than the US, both directly through income tax (the middle class in particular pays a lot less in the US) and stuff like high VAT, which is very regressive. the average tax burden is similar, but the distribution is very different. people with high income are taxed aggressively in the US, although there are lots of ways for wealthy people to avoid taxes on capital. it's hard to compare apples-to-apples though because the middle and lower classes in europe receive much better public services.

by axlee 7y ago

It is very often Americans themselves who seed the "low tax meme" in order to criticize European social democracies. Those profiles tend to be right-wing. They have drunk their own kool-aid.

AndrewUnmuted 7y ago

Well, if you’re referring to places like Denmark, it is true that most Americans pay nowhere near those income tax rates. I can’t see a lot of right wingers in the US suggesting we have low taxes. Conservative talking points frequently address the desire to lower tax rates in the US because they claim they’re too high as it is.

umanwizard 7y ago

Left-leaning Americans do the same thing. “Why don’t we just tax the rich, like they do in Europe, so that the government can provide services!” which doesn’t recognize that the problem is actually different and more complicated. “The US wastes massive amounts of resources for very poor levels of service, and nobody has any idea how to fix it” isn’t as nice of a sound byte.

thebooktocome 7y ago
Not being able to recover revenue from wealthy people who can afford to bend or break the tax code is a problem. The IRS can effectively make money for the federal government simply by auditing the rich (I seem to remember that the marginal dollar spent on enforcement returned six dollars in revenue), but they don't because politics.

leetcrew 7y ago

there's some truth to it. in general, european countries have less progressive tax regimes than the US, both directly through income tax (the middle class in particular pays a lot less in the US) and stuff like high VAT, which is very regressive. the average tax burden is similar, but the distribution is very different. people with high income are taxed aggressively in the US, although there are lots of ways for wealthy people to avoid taxes on capital. it's hard to compare apples-to-apples though because the middle and lower classes in europe receive much better public services.