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High taxes and strict regulation do have a negative impact on job and income growth in much of Europe, though.

by ywvcbk 2y ago

atwrk 2y ago
That seems wrong, as most high tax countries (Denmark, Norway, ...) have full employment and very high standards of living for decades now. Do you have a source for that? Eastern European countries catching up with development don't count, see Piketty.
- ywvcbk 2y ago
  > as most high tax countries Yet you listed two relatively tiny countries. Which don’t even have (relatively) very high taxes. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece etc. all have higher taxes on labor https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/tax-wedge.html?oecdcontrol-521118a96c-var1=DNK%7CNOR%7CITA%7CFRA%7CESP%7CGRC%7CPRT%7CUSA https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/tax-wedge.html?oecdc... e.g. Denmark and Norway are closer to US than to France > have full employment and very high standards of living for decades now Yet those standards have barely improved over those decades. Prior to 2009 the gap between US and the EU was closing, not it is the complete opposite.
  - atwrk 2y ago
    Well the tax wedge as defined on that page measures the sum of taxes and healthcare, pensions and social security combined, not the tax alone. For a working class wage in most EU countries, healthcare plus contributions for pensions and social funds will sum up to be larger than than income tax.
consteval 2y ago
This is often a problem of metrics. US-centric economic views tend to favor metrics we're really good at, but that don't matter to the average person, like GDP. The US has an absurd GDP. But if you could compare the average American and, say, the average Norwegian, I don't think it would even be close in terms of quality of life. Particularly if we include things such as food, exercise, and education.
- ywvcbk 2y ago
  > average Norwegian That’s the problem. You should comparing it only with states like Massachusetts, Connecticut etc. (and even then.. Norway is inflated by oil revenue, IMHO Denmark is a lot more impressive).

High taxes and strict regulation do have a negative impact on job and income growth in much of Europe, though.

by ywvcbk 2y ago

High taxes and strict regulation do have a negative impact on job and income growth in much of Europe, though.

That seems wrong, as most high tax countries (Denmark, Norway, ...) have full employment and very high standards of living for decades now. Do you have a source for that? Eastern European countries catching up with development don't count, see Piketty.

ywvcbk 2y ago
> as most high tax countries Yet you listed two relatively tiny countries. Which don’t even have (relatively) very high taxes. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece etc. all have higher taxes on labor https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/tax-wedge.html?oecdcontrol-521118a96c-var1=DNK%7CNOR%7CITA%7CFRA%7CESP%7CGRC%7CPRT%7CUSA https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/tax-wedge.html?oecdc... e.g. Denmark and Norway are closer to US than to France > have full employment and very high standards of living for decades now Yet those standards have barely improved over those decades. Prior to 2009 the gap between US and the EU was closing, not it is the complete opposite.
- atwrk 2y ago
  Well the tax wedge as defined on that page measures the sum of taxes and healthcare, pensions and social security combined, not the tax alone. For a working class wage in most EU countries, healthcare plus contributions for pensions and social funds will sum up to be larger than than income tax.

consteval 2y ago

This is often a problem of metrics. US-centric economic views tend to favor metrics we're really good at, but that don't matter to the average person, like GDP. The US has an absurd GDP. But if you could compare the average American and, say, the average Norwegian, I don't think it would even be close in terms of quality of life. Particularly if we include things such as food, exercise, and education.

ywvcbk 2y ago
> average Norwegian That’s the problem. You should comparing it only with states like Massachusetts, Connecticut etc. (and even then.. Norway is inflated by oil revenue, IMHO Denmark is a lot more impressive).