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.

Stig Broderson of the investors podcast once said the key to Denmark’s happiness scores was “low expectations”.

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

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.

for the greater good