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> Nobody ever offers his own money, though. A lot of people offer their money. Most countries have social security systems, which were voted in by people who s

by wisty 13y ago

> Nobody ever offers his own money, though. A lot of people offer their money. Most countries have social security systems, which were voted in by people who stand to lose money over them. If I give a homeless guy $10,000, that won't stop all the other homeless guys from causing me all the problems that they cause (like not buying enough stuff to provide me with a better job, or clogging up the local emergency ward because they got pneumonia). But if I conspire (with a few fellow voters) to give $10,000 to all the homeless guys, then the problem is partially solved. And it's not like all these countries with social security nets are forcing rich people to pay for it. It's no secret that the truly rich often don't pay taxes.

yummyfajitas 13y ago
And it's not like all these countries with social security nets are forcing rich people to pay for it. This is very true. America leans more heavily on the rich to pay for government than the rest of the OECD. Only Australia even comes close. http://taxfoundation.org/blog/no-country-leans-upper-income-households-much-us http://taxfoundation.org/blog/no-country-leans-upper-income-...
- gizmo 13y ago
  Those stats are extremely misleading, because in the US the rich are also disproportional beneficiaries of their tax money (compared to other countries). In the US the rich pay taxes for schools they end up with better schools in their neighborhood. And they get better parks, and better libraries and better everything in rich neighborhoods. Very little of that money ends up improving poorer neighborhoods, so in the US rich people pay those taxes mostly to themselves. The taxes aren't very re-distributive, which defeats the point of progressive taxation. Tax deductions in the US also go disproportionately to rich people, whereas in Europe there are many big tax breaks for poor and middle class families. So it's absolutely not the case that the US has the most progressive tax system among industrialized nations (as claimed in the linked article). Only when you creatively slice and dice the data can you arrive at such a conclusion.
  - wisty 13y ago
    > In the US the rich pay taxes for schools they end up with better schools in their neighborhood. And they get better parks, and better libraries and better everything in rich neighborhoods. Very little of that money ends up improving poorer neighborhoods, so in the US rich people pay those taxes mostly to themselves. The taxes aren't very re-distributive, which defeats the point of progressive taxation. And Americans wonder why their school system sucks? Why they have more people in prison than China?

by wisty 13y ago

yummyfajitas 13y ago

And it's not like all these countries with social security nets are forcing rich people to pay for it. This is very true. America leans more heavily on the rich to pay for government than the rest of the OECD. Only Australia even comes close. http://taxfoundation.org/blog/no-country-leans-upper-income-households-much-us http://taxfoundation.org/blog/no-country-leans-upper-income-...

gizmo 13y ago
Those stats are extremely misleading, because in the US the rich are also disproportional beneficiaries of their tax money (compared to other countries). In the US the rich pay taxes for schools they end up with better schools in their neighborhood. And they get better parks, and better libraries and better everything in rich neighborhoods. Very little of that money ends up improving poorer neighborhoods, so in the US rich people pay those taxes mostly to themselves. The taxes aren't very re-distributive, which defeats the point of progressive taxation. Tax deductions in the US also go disproportionately to rich people, whereas in Europe there are many big tax breaks for poor and middle class families. So it's absolutely not the case that the US has the most progressive tax system among industrialized nations (as claimed in the linked article). Only when you creatively slice and dice the data can you arrive at such a conclusion.
- wisty 13y ago
  > In the US the rich pay taxes for schools they end up with better schools in their neighborhood. And they get better parks, and better libraries and better everything in rich neighborhoods. Very little of that money ends up improving poorer neighborhoods, so in the US rich people pay those taxes mostly to themselves. The taxes aren't very re-distributive, which defeats the point of progressive taxation. And Americans wonder why their school system sucks? Why they have more people in prison than China?