Why Norway is a BS argument for higher taxes | Hacker News Reader

Why Norway is a BS argument for higher taxes

sovereignman.com

10 pointsshubhamjain10 comments

This is wrong on so many accounts that is not even funny. Corporate tax is 28%. It is low by many standards. That 78% applies only if one is in the oil/gas business.

My personal income tax is about 35% on a salary that is much higher than average. For households it is noticeably lower especially if one takes into account direct payments for children. Even for cases when both parents have high salary the total tax will be around 50K USD per year.

Yes, VAT is 25%, but it is not particularly high by European standards. Poland is not known for high taxes, but VAT there is 23%.

Now consider the benefits. Given that University education is free and students can get loans from the state on very attractive terms to cover living expenses, after 6 years of studies one may accumulate a debt of 30-40K USD if one just studies with no income from any jobs.

I have no idea where the author took that 31 hour of working per weak. The standard number is 37.5 hours. True in some big companies like banks it is OK to submit time sheets with 127 hours per month, but this is rare. From my experience on engineering positions in SMB overtime is expected, just not all the time.

Most people work in SMBs, not government bureaucracies or government-owned companies or big businesses. Businesses are very competitive. Just consider that Opera browser, the QT library and Mali GPUs are developed in Norway. I personally consulted a company that won engineering contracts against Siemens in Germany and a company that we share the office with like 20 people just won a contract in France competing against big French companies.

Don't forget healthcare costs in the US. Which are about 33% of median income per capita.

And worse outcomes: it's more money for worse care. Also, the individual risks going bankrupt. If an individual gets some cancer that's crazy expensive to treat, they lose everything they own in the US and sometimes still can't afford treatment.

35% income tax is incredibly low even for a below average salary! You guys have it made.

Great reply. I Was thinking about the same. This article was just a in-coherent rant without much factual basis. Clearly biased against socialism and the nordic model. Thank you for providing the facts for us @fpoling.

As an example, the office complex across from my hotel room was a ghost town by 5:06pm yesterday afternoon. And work hours in general here have declined steadily over past decades to just 31 hours per week.

Sounds good to me.

Sure, the system gives them lots of leisure time to enjoy… but this is not necessarily a choice they make freely, rather the only choice they have.

People don't have any choice about their free time in the Anglo-sphere either. Out of the two options I know which most people would choose.

People who think that ‘we should just be like Norway’ are missing an even greater point: all of this central planning is made possible by huge oil reserves… and for that matter, oil reserves that are DECADES past their peak production.

It seems to me out of all the oil rich countries Norway has managed the in-balance in their economy the best.

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur, and founder of Sovereign Man. His free daily e-letter Notes from the Field is about using the experiences from his life and travels to help you achieve more freedom, make more money, keep more of it, and protect it all from bankrupt governments.

Well there you go, conveniently forgetting he didn't make the land, bury create the oil, educate the population ...

> to help you achieve more freedom, make more money, keep more of it, and protect it all from bankrupt governments

The author bio could do with some work. Norway owns the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with a population of 5 million.

Well, that was amusing. All the best elements of comedy and fiction combined. It's the writer an accomplished author in this genre?

sweet conflict of interest, what is this? a cheeky text selling something smelling like tax evasion at its bottom!

There are always trade offs. Norway seems focused on the well-being of its people rather than exhausting them to maximise the results(with collateral victims, of course). It seems most of them like to be happy and vote for this system, it's a democracy after all.

I'm actually surprises that it works so well. They are many unhappy socialist states(in EU as well) that don't deliver on their promise.

Norway is not a big country(5.3 mil) so you should't expect it to invent much.

I think the OP argument against NW is actually BS. If anything, Norway is socialism done right.

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