4 ms·

Forgive my ignorance, but do we pay VAT on anything in the U.S.? Hell, we don't even have sales tax in my state. Why do Europeans put up with it?

• rasz_pl 12y ago
  free healtcare, maintained infrastructure, cheap internet and cops that do not murder people help a lot
  • influx 12y ago
    It's not free if you are taxed for it. We can debate whether a society is better off with it or not, but please don't claim that it is free.
    • petercooper 12y ago
      Though the point is somewhat moot because US government spends more per capita on public healthcare than the British government does, bizarrely. So while it's not "free" in the UK, Americans get charged twice via taxes and insurance.
    • meepmorp 12y ago
      Nothing is free, at all, in the sense you apparently mean. The costs may be hidden, but they always exist. So what people are using here is a colloquial sense of the word free. When you walk into the doctor's office to have something checked out, you don't run the risk of having a large bill just for the privilege of seeing a doctor. If you get hospitalized, you don't run the risk of being bankrupted just because your job is too shitty to provide you with health insurance. Free in the sense of not a huge amount out of pocket at time of service and not going to financially cripple you to make extensive use of.
    • deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]