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It's not being given away. How are the roads, police, schools, defense budgets funded?
> so that people who don't give a flying toss get their benefits
I just checked. The US and the UK both have a 4.1% unemployment rate. Many of those people are unable to work at all. our social security net means that if you're disabled you shouldn't end up honeless. Note it also pays for healthcare, so there's no chance of me being bankrupted from being hit by a car.
I would assume the same way they're funded in America, but for a lot less and with better results.
Domino's streets, McDonalds Police, Facebook Schools, Nestle Fire department,
The army is the only taxes they are okay paying
because they think their money goes towards punishing poor people instead of helping them
It’s a myth that taxes in the US are low.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_State... you earn >$400k a year? If so you shouldn't have any problems in NY.
If you do make $100k, you'd be way better off in Texas: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
In other words, we're comparing apples to apples here.
Yes, if you make $100k you are better off in Texas. There are way more jobs that pay $100k (not to mention $400k) in NYC than in Texas though. I’m not sure what the apples are or what we’re comparing; if it’s tax rates than the US isn’t as low as people believe.
Where?
This is the tax in Germany for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/ES...
For third parties unfamiliar with the setup, to pay yourself those dividends that take you from £100k to £110k, you need to take £12500 of biz profit, then £2500 goes to corporation tax, then £6000 to the taxman in personal taxes, leaving you with £4000 from that initial £12500 profit(!) which "feels" like a 68% tax to, say, a contractor in that situation (note: I am not a contractor).
This example is from 2010 back when I was a student. Since I only worked 6 monhts, I got back 300€ per month, so effectively received 2150*6 = 12,9k out of 24k paid by the employer.
Note that when you spend money, you'll most likely additionally pay 19% VAT, so out of your standard 1800€ another 324 are spent on VAT.
Hopefully you don't buy gasoline, electricity or products that are produced or transported using gasoline or electricity, because then the taxes paid will be higher.
;-)
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/...
Which means that you'd need an income over 480k a year to get an effective tax rate >50%.
I hope I calculated that correctly: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=solve+((x-70)*0.5195%2B...
> Then you pay 6-21% VAT over anything you buy, so yeah, in some scenarios you definitely lose >50% of your gross income to taxes.
If you count VAT, you'd also need to take into account all the benefits you get in return from the state.
Well: I gladly pay health insurance in Germany instead of having an American system. Could it be better - hell yes. There is so much bullshit being paid for and so much in the system is made to extract money. But first: taxes are not the culprit here. And second: Pay for healthcare in the US yourself and see what system you like better. Esp if you get older.
So income isn't the sole metric which determines the pay.
Also, as far as I know there is no benefit in going to the dentist, except as "We pay one dental check-up and one clean-up for year, more than that comes out of your pocket". That is at least what I was told when I went to the dentist.
It looks like the TK doesn't pay for just visiting the gym: https://www.tk.de/techniker/service/leistungen-und-mitglieds...
> Also, as far as I know there is no benefit in going to the dentist, except as "We pay one dental check-up and one clean-up for year, more than that comes out of your pocket". That is at least what I was told when I went to the dentist.
They will pay more for a tooth replacement if you visit the dentist on a regular basis: https://www.tk.de/techniker/service/leistungen-und-mitglieds...
You might be interested in their bonus programme: https://www.tk.de/techniker/service/gesundheit-und-medizin/p... Some public insurers have a more extensive one or special, reduced tariffs under some conditions (Wahltarif).
Furthermore you'd also need to take into account all the costs you can set off against tax liability.
Worst in case of health insurance, the amount you pay is dependent on your income, not your actual actuarial risk. This means that, indeed, the healthy people working are subsidizing the costs of the ones "who don't give a flying toss".
And don't get me started on things like Künstlersozialkasse...
Don't know anything about Künstlersozialkasse - "artist social fund". Is that like a tax to (supposedly) support cultural activities..?
Why the distinction? Because this work involved Photoshop and mine used emacs?
It is only available to freelancers. People working in those fields usually don't have the option of regular employment. For that reason was decided that companies using their work still need to contribute to health insurance (as all regular employers need to do as well). For everybody else the answer is: seek regular employment if you want someone else to pay half of your health insurance.
Still does not explain why there is a distinction. Why do artists get to have companies paying them part of their social security while other freelancers still need to make this out of their own pocket? If this is a good idea for the artists, why not for other professions?
Why exactly is it a black hole? Doctors need to be paid, too.
The state caught up on that eventually, and you now have to pay a monthly fee for the car of a couple hundred euros.
This "taxes pay for lazy fucks" meme needs to die.
> see the US where people die on the streets because they can't afford an ambulance
American hospitals cannot deny emergency treatment for lack of ability to pay.
Then there's VAT syphoning an extra 20% of the remaining cash.
Then there are hidden taxes charged throguh other fees being levied, even to access mandatory state services.
In the end you get healthcare, but in general the service is practically unusable and you end up having to pay for health insurance anyway.
And by the way, a large portion of your taxes is effectively "lost" between your wallet and the public services provided to the population.
- About $20k/y to provide health for a family, regardless of income. Median wage is barely double that amount. So most people in that situation forego health coverage (or pick the cheapest catastrophic-only coverage they can afford, and then are on the hook financially for any health issue).
- Still have 33% income tax
- Retirement: it's entirely up to you to save. Good luck! (rule of thumb is 15-20% of income)
- Child care: $12-24k/year/infant should your spouse have to work.
- College education: similar figures, maybe less with some assistance programs, maybe more if children go to prestigious schools. Or you can punt the bill to them and have them be on the hook for a loan.
- Oh, and nursing home for the elderly is about $30k/year so better get that retirement fund full of money. Though it's an undue burden to place on someone else, the traditional view is that having children can help reduce that cost.
In short, the US' system is not optimized for the median citizen ($59k in 2016), it's optimized for those who are in the 75th percentile or above.
UPTO 20% of what you SPEND. In the UK you pay 0% VAT toward most food and child stuff. Then 5% toward essential goods and services. THEN full VAT on the rest of the stuff.
But that doesn't equate to 20% of your remaining cash unless you are only buying pre-prepared foods and furniture with your salary, and spending every bit of it.
You don’t have to pay VAT if you don’t buy anything. You can just invest your money.
A new passport costs money. You need to pay for one if you want it. That shouldn’t be part of your income tax because nobody knows how often you will need one. Essentially those fees are on per person basis.
The NHS is very useable. I never used to pay for any private health insurance for about 5 years. It might not be convenient for you to wait but that’s your problem. That system works and saves lives... so it is usable.
I don’t even know what you mean by “lost”. Money doesn’t magically disappear. Maybe it’s a more complex system than you can imagine or haven’t thought about it hard enough.
Yeah this is just wrong. I have friends who have moved to the US, and said things like - "I wouldn't be as annoyed at how massively expensive health insurance here is, if you got any better service, but you don't"