3 ms·
> So Denmark would forcibly take more than half of my income to invest in stuff I don't have a say on.. If you could invest in humans, you'd want a diversified
by jopsen 6y ago
> So Denmark would forcibly take more than half of my income to invest in stuff I don't have a say on..
If you could invest in humans, you'd want a diversified portfolio anyways.
Indeed to keep operating costs low, you might want a passive investment scheme, like index funds.
Paying taxes to fund education and pensions is kind of like investing in an index fund tracking all humans in a given country.
Only kind of like! Such schemes definitely shouldn't be the primary assets in your portfolio.
But it's failure modes a very different from stocks, so some exposure is good.
- jopsen 6y agoAlso it's usually less than half. Average tax rate in Denmark is around 45%. In San Francisco I was paying 38%. Can you pay education for your kids with 7% of your income? How about healthcare? What is a social safety net worth?
- andxor 6y agoSalary in SF is much higher than Copenhagen. Factor that into the equation.
- jopsen 6y agoBut the tax rate isn't the reason salaries are higher in SF. (Oh, and most people aren't software engineers) 7% of 130k is that enough to cover education, healthcare, etc? Note. To be fair, the us does have some pension through medicare. (But I was honestly shocked to learn that it was regressively taxed)
- andxor 6y ago130k is not a good salary in SF.