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Comment by ChrisLTD | Hacker News Reader

They almost made it the entire article without throwing in a bit of Both Sides Do It nonsense.

"In America the Republicans are guilty of outrageous obstructionism and misleading simplification, while Mr Obama has favoured class warfare over fiscal leadership."

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Obama class warfare? No sign of it. I think Obama's a great human being, but he's a essentially a conservative by any sane standard. With the economic stance he holds now, he'd have been a Republican in 1970 (a time in which Republicans were not all horrible).

Wow, as exemplified by this comment, this conversation is getting really inappropriate for hn.

If Obama is your idea of a Republican, I don't want your idea of a Democrat in office...ever.

The horror... you might just end up like Germany or France.

70%+ taxes, no thanks. I thought this was HN, not reddit...

According to Wikipedia, the German and French personal tax rates are in the area of 50%:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world

This doesn't include VAT and increased taxes in other areas, so personal income tax might be 50%, but you are actually paying a much higher rate.

You're making numbers up and don't actually know what the aggregate taxes for an average consumer in France, Germany and the US are.

..and you are basing an individuals total tax rate based on income tax alone, which doesn't account for the many other taxes that someone has to pay.

I suppose if you made money, didn't live in a house, and didn't spend your money in any way, your tax rate would be 50% in France. This just isn't the case for the average consumer.

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