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Comment by jonhinson | Hacker News Reader

At what rate do taxes cross the threshold of being obscenely high?

Well, American taxes are rather typical. A bit on the low side, but not much. What is atypical is the very low return American citizens see on that tax. Some of that is just because of high defense spending but the rest is a product of a completely inane government. One could argue that given the rate of return, American taxes are quite high.

American taxes are far from typical: The poor and middle classes pay far less than in Europe, for example. Whilst the rich pay more.

Note the lack of high regressive taxes such as VAT, excise, and import taxes in the US.

I meant in sum. You have a point, but those aren't really regressive taxes so much as flat taxes.

The poor spend a larger share of their income on items covered by VATs and excise and import duties than do rich people. Conversely, rich people save and invest a larger portion of their income. Point being that Europeans, who "see more from the taxes they pay," are really just paying themselves.

Don't most states have VAT? And are there really no import duties in the US? Why would the US need free trade deals then?

Well, I'm pretty sure that there's more redistribution in northern Europe than in the US. Sure, there's a lot of "paying yourself" going on, but that's hardly everything. Anyway, my point is that in most industrialized countries the mechanisms by which you pay yourself are much more efficient than in the US.

> Don't most states have VAT?

No, but many have sales taxes (which are not the same thing as a VAT, though they serve a similar purpose; VAT's are collected at each step in the supply chain, sales taxes only on sale to consumers.)

@Tormeh, yes most US states do, but they're small (zero to nine percent, typically). I said US import duties were low, not nonexistent.

Apparently somewhere under 26.9% of GDP.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_reven...

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