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Why Are Some Countries Happy with High Taxes and Others Aren't?
1334 sats \ 8 comments \ @kr 31 May Politics_And_Law
It seems like on average, people in North America dislike paying taxes. In Scandinavian countries, where taxes are even higher on average, it seems like people don't mind forking over large chunks of their income to the government... at least that's my outsider understanding.
How did Scandinavian countries (this might also happen elsewhere too) manage to convince their citizens to accept such extraordinarily high tax rates?
Is there something about the quality of the services they provide that North America could learn from?
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 31 May
Stig Broderson of the investors podcast once said the key to Denmark’s happiness scores was “low expectations”.
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr OP 31 May
Interesting, will give that a listen
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 31 May
Couldn’t tell you what episode or when it was. Probably at least four or five years ago. I just recall it because it was quite a novel framing.
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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 31 May
There's a good documentary on Sweden that talks about this. About when they went socialist and it didn't work. Then they reformed into a capitalist country with high taxes and a welfare state.
The TLDR is that it works better when you have a smaller scale state and more of a shared cultural heritage. The message the guy sends is that over time people move from feeling ownership of their system and not feeling entitled to more entitlement from those using the system. This breeds resentment for the higher taxes.
Its a few years old but is interesting.
Sweden: Lessons for America?
I tend to agree with this general thought. Unless you have a more monolithic culture welfare systems really slowly stop working. The thing I take away from this is if you have a culture that values the welfare of others why do you need force to help those in need? I don't think the issue is the tax rate but the perceived value of what people get for those taxes and sense of leadership listening to the people. That tends to break down as governance scales to large. I think this is a thing that can happen in private governance as well. But private governance doesn't have a monopoly on violence like a state does. Easier to kick the leadership out or the entire system.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 31 May
The US health system is the most inefficient inequitable system on the world. The market does not solve all problems. A mixed economy is better than the crony capitalist system the USA practices where big rentseeking corporates and the bankers hold too much power via lobbying.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @carter 31 May
I think its a culture thing obviously if you grow up used to paying 45% tax and that its normal then its fine, I wonder how the laffer curve would change between countries
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 31 May
Health and education should be free for all citizens. The market solves many problems but not all. Provision of social housing gives all people the chance to have a stable family. Free public health and education enables all citizens to maximize their productive and creative potential. A mixed economy is more potentially productive and equitable than the alternatives but requires a degree of discretion and unity of purpose.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gandlaf21 31 May
for the greater good
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