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Originally Posted by Paul Markham
Great article and mostly right. The argument about rural areas is typical. Farmers don't get back their money!!!!
Do they think Wars are free? I could go on and on about how the Government spends their money in ways they approve of, but the right wing will never listen.
In a country, that has a very low level of tax, the whole argument is absurd.
United States 26.9
Denmark 49.0
Sweden 45.8
Belgium 45.4
France 44.6
Finland 43.6
Norway 43.6
Austria 43.4
Germany 40.6
Netherlands 39.8
UK 39.0
Czech Republic 36.3
European Union 35.7
We do get a far better and cheaper healthcare free at the point of need, insurance and not terrified of getting old or sick.
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Healthcare average expense in the US taxpayers' (working family) budget is $8,000 a year. The cost of bread and food stuffs are not subsidised in the US like I saw in Europe -- like a loaf of bread in France for ,80 to 1,6 euro and domestic cheese prices were a lot lower there. But you forgot to add the VAT tax on consumer spending in Europe so add that 18% to 22% (on consumption -- in France this was only 5% on food VAT
-- where I live the sales tax on food is 0%) to the European taxpayer's rate.
Aside: I have has a rash of EU customers using US VPN services at my billing server trying to evade the new Digital VAT tax on internet purchases -- I know where they come from -- they are not fooling me.
Tax rates between the European countries and the US is really a red herring and irrelevant argument. You are comparing apples and oranges. This is like comparing Chinese and EU tax rates -- to what end? The services delivered to the population for their tax money are radically different.
Rural America has always had a high poverty rate. There are an elite group of corporate landowners and less elite farmers receiving crop subsidies but only some of rural America are getting government scraps of of some sort. In extreme cases of social welfare; food stamps, general assistance, and/or some grants or low cost loans as mentioned. Urban inhabitants get US federal assistance also. Urban America tends to be more aligned with the Democrat Party and rural America more aligned with the Republican Party -- this may be true -- but so what?
We are all Americans and have some common interests to build upon?