> It feels disingenuous to me to see "someone else pays tax, so that counts as a tax on me" leveled as a serious argument. They don't pay tax. They pay half of

> It feels disingenuous to me to see "someone else pays tax, so that counts as a tax on me" leveled as a serious argument. They don't pay tax. They pay half of the social insurance fee for their employer. Of course that half is part of the wage you're being paid. > Maybe it's just my cold pragmatism speaking, but if your employer suddenly didn't have to pay that tax, I don't think they would bump your salary up. I could certainly use that range to negotiate my salary. > Americans make this same argument (they call it "trickle down economics"). So far, it doesn't seem to have worked out for them. None of this has anything to do with trickle down economics. The trick is that if social insurance payments go up, which they do a lot, my employer is charged automatically and I no longer have that room for negotiating a raise.