8 ms·
Some things about the US still surprise me. In "socialist Sweden" (as it's sometimes called) retroactive taxation is unconstitutional. On the other hand capita
by bjornsing 14y ago
Some things about the US still surprise me. In "socialist Sweden" (as it's sometimes called) retroactive taxation is unconstitutional.
On the other hand capital gains is 20-30%, and most entrepreneurs actually have their gains taxed as income. That means you're lucky if you get to keep 13%. ;) I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much.
- w1ntermute 14y ago> Some things about the US still surprise me. In "socialist Sweden" (as it's sometimes called) retroactive taxation is unconstitutional. The difference between the US and postage-stamp-sized European countries like Sweden is that there is great political and cultural variation between different parts of the US. California is chock full of socialists/liberals.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rosser 14y agopostage-stamp-sized European countries like Sweden At 174K mi^2, Sweden is larger than California's 164K mi^2.
- aaronblohowiak 14y agoPopulation-wise, Sweden is about the same as new york city.
- w1ntermute 14y agoYou're being intentionally obtuse. As is immediately apparent if you look at a population density map of Sweden[0], the vast majority of the population is concentrated in the southern part of the country. 0: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Swedishpopdensity.svg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Swedishpo...
- rosser 14y agoIf you meant population, you should have said population. The phrase "postage-stamp-sized European countries" is pretty broadly understood and used to mean things like Andorra, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, &c. By no stretch of the imagination is interpreting a widely-used phrase as it's widely used "being intentionally obtuse."
- georgemcbay 14y agoI'm a socialist/liberal who lives in California and I think the idea of retroactive taxation on anything (be it person or business), is nightmareish and should be abolished.
- MaysonL 14y agoGiven that Sweden is about 10% larger than California, albeit with less than a third the population, it's hardly "postage-stamp-sized". Given that we elected Reagan, Schwarzenegger, and David Dreier, California's chock full o' wingnuts as well as socialists/liberals.
- w1ntermute 14y ago> Given that Sweden is about 10% larger than California, albeit with less than a third the population, it's hardly "postage-stamp-sized". I already addressed this point below in response to another reply: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062138 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062138 > Given that we elected Reagan, Schwarzenegger, and David Dreier, California's chock full o' wingnuts as well as socialists/liberals. I'm not familiar with Dreier, but there's no doubt that Californians have a soft spot for actors.
- sp332 14y agoIt's not retroactive taxation. The Supreme Court pointed out that a tax break enacted several years ago was unconstitutional.
- viggity 14y agomost tax bills have a severability clause in them, meaning that is one part is struck down, the rest remain in force. I don't know that was the case with this particular law.
- toyg 14y agoIt's technically unconstitutional in Italy as well, but it keeps happening over ad over... "Emergency measures".