Here is a summary of the article https://summarybrew.com/p/why-does-sweden-have-so-many-start...
All Norwegians know this. Any other Norwegians here who can confirm?
Finns are kind of similar to Norwegians, in this aspect, only, drunker and more depressed. Danes are even more content than Norwegians with having even less, giving almost everything back to the state. They just want their "hygge".
That's not to say Swedes aren't hard working but you'll rarely hear a swede talk about their achievements in the way a person from the US would for instance.
https://www.quora.com/How-are-Danes-Norwegians-Swedes-and-Fi...
If I were to talk about what's actually going on and explain why Norway fosters less tech innovation than Sweden it would have to be in a different form than comments. But I wanted to point out that the explanation might have to do with things unrelated to regulations, taxes, and safety nets.
Are Finns drunker than Norwegians? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...
Is this bias?
This misconception, as well as call to "all Norwegians know this", and your use of the term "politically correct" as a pejorative makes it clear that you have a political agenda, an axe to grind with the social democracy practiced in the Scandinavian countries.
Denmark is indeed remarkable.
Car registration tax has never been 200%. It has been 105% up to ~$15K of the car's value and 180% above that for years, which was lowered to 150% some time ago. Now the lower rate has been reduced to 85% and the cutover raised to around ~$20K, and rebates for fuel economy and safety gear have increased significantly. A small car is only marginally more expensive in Denmark compared to Germany, while larger and luxury cars are rightfully more expensive.
You obviously only have a very tenuous grasp of what you're talking about, so please stop, listen and learn instead.
Vehicles aside, in Denmark, you have a gross tax of 8% in addition to payroll tax. You have municipal tax, a health contribution tax, etc. If you make more than DKK 479 600, you are taxed an additional 15%. This means you will be taxed around 50% on income tax alone. Then add the vehicle taxation, and VAT, etc.
You can try to justify this massive taxation. Rationalize it, based on your political views. But it's not wrong to say that Danes are taxed even more than Norwegians.
> Still, it's around 25-35% all-in.
That's false.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Denmark
http://www.economist.com/node/21531016
https://tradingeconomics.com/denmark/personal-income-tax-rat...
But the simple fact is that it highly encourages people to buy cars that pollute less, and with the new rules, also cars with the best safety ratings. It also encourages people to keep their cars for longer, which is better for the environment (producing a new car uses a lot of energy).
And yes, if you buy a bigger and more expensive car (which probably also gets worse gas mileage), you get taxed more, in absolute numbers. It's not a complicated concept. Overconsumers pay more, it's only fair.
You seriously misunderstand the marginal tax rate. It is only applied to income above 479,600kr. Nobody pays even close to 50%. The ~40% in your link is on a 635,000kr/year income, which is rather high, includes marginal tax, and again is nowhere near the 50% you claim. It also doesn't take into account deductions for debt, charitable donations and other things, which help bring down the effective tax percentage.
Your third link is highly misinformative, since it only looks at the marginal tax rate, which again is only applied to income above 479,600kr. If you make 480,000kr/year, the marginal tax rate is only applied to the last 400kr.
Is this wrong?
Maybe you want to condemn everyone to live in cities? Or to not have big families, or to not produce goods where at one point those goods need to be transported to outlets by vehicle. The manufacturing of goods cause pollution as well, you don't want to have that production in urban areas and affect the health of those living there. Not all transportation can be done by other means, shipping, trains, etc. Goods have to get to stores. Sometime in the future, we will have more efficient means of delivery, at the very least all the vehicles delivering goods will be autonomous and electric, but for now, we're not there.
In the case of Denmark, first off, their vehicles per capita is very low, and not because of taxation. Going after the few people who need their cars is punishing, kind of hypocritical as well, when you're at the same time burning coal. Second, Denmark's contribution to global warming is infinitesimal, let's focus on the United States and China who's the biggest polluters, by far. You don't cut the snake's tail.
Like I said with "people don't inherently need cars", this line of thinking is anchored in the wrong thing. It's of course trivially true that many current jobs rely on cars, but we have to rapidly change that - otherwise much worse things than carlessness and change of job will happen to people and the ecosphere.
Try s/cars/slaves/ in your text to see what I mean.
Re coal - it is a logical fallacy to deny necessary improvement A because we have not made a tangential, equally necessary improvement B yet. Of course we have to stop burning coal as well.
Re cities - history does know instances of people living outside cities before widespread private car ownership...
Inherent need as in without you die? No. But right now, for efficient (compared to walking) mobility outside of the public transportation infrastructure, we need vehicles.
What is your suggestion for mobility outside cities, in a way that grants as much liberty, personal freedom as a car does?
> Re coal - it is a logical fallacy to deny necessary improvement A because we have not made a tangential, equally necessary improvement B yet. Of course we have to stop burning coal as well.
The logical fallacy is putting the cart before the horse.
> Re cities - history does know instances of people living outside cities before widespread private car ownership...
Your point being?
Are you aware that Norway is one of the richest countries in the wold?
They don't have a neighbour who has created a multi-million dollar company.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2007/jul/13/business.inter...
On the number of billionaires per capita, both Norway, Sweden and Iceland ranks above the US:
http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-ranked-by-billionai...
Your ideas about Scandinavia seem very disconnected from reality.
This report https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio... suggests that the median income of non-family households in the United States was ~33,800 USD/year, before taxes but after cash transfers from the government.
I am not sure how to compare the before and after tax measures, but even if I could, there are still many remaining differences between the United States and Norway. Also note that the two groups being compared are not the same, because of the age restriction.
One thing to note about Norway: they might not have the same urge to create startups as they already are among the wealthiest countries in the world thanks to their very wisely spent oil reserves.