> I would imagine whatever social safety net is in place would be taken out of your wages in taxes, right? It depends, e.g. in Belgium part of it is paid by yo

> I would imagine whatever social safety net is in place would be taken out of your wages in taxes, right? It depends, e.g. in Belgium part of it is paid by your employer on top of your pre-tax wage, and a (larger) part is deducted from your pre-tax salary. Don't ask me why. I think you're right to point out that there's two different – though obviously related – questions to ask: (a) are companies paying less? and (b) is individual taxation higher?