Nobody, and perhaps that came off harsher than I intended it too. I just think it’s funny that you posted this, I’m guessing in criticism from the comrade quip, despite the fact that Denmark by most measures is a way better country for most people to live in than America. Better health outcomes, social services, life expectancy, higher levels of overall happiness etc. And especially so while your country is descending further and further in to unstable political madness.
If you click right before top and highlight clear to Denmark, then right click, third option “Search Google” it works really well, and you’ll see Sphere made a typo it is 55.9% not 59%.
We can com[romise at that and let them keep the extra 3.2%
Yeah it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
I did a quick Google and it seems like fairly middle class jobs like nursing, police officers, some trades, computer programmers etc dip in to the highest brackets to one degree or another. Doctors have around half their income in that bracket on average.
My cousin married a Norwegian girl and they decided to raise a family there over Canada. He said it was a no brainer. A bit of a higher tax burden but you get all the services we once enjoyed a generation ago here, and then some. The higher taxes, and what is taxed, certainly shapes the culture in different ways. Things that promote health are highly subsidized. Sports, recreation, etc. He says everyone there is athletic. Fresh food is cheaper while processed food and alcohol is taxed very heavily. Eating out is very expensive.
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It’s kind of like telling your kids they can make whatever they want for dinner. Of course they’re going to make some sort of chocolate syrup ice cream pancake pie or something terrible like that. No chance they’re going to choose something healthy.
Unfortunately, the view of some Americans regarding “freedom” is that we should be governing by giving everyone chocolate syrup ice cream pancake pies instead of, you know, education, or healthcare.
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Exactly my point. Taking something like retirement age and saying “Look, even the libbiest libs do it” and removing it from the broader economic and societal context is sort of silly.
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It seemed like all foods were more expensive when I was last in Norway. People like doctors who have to work to the same amount for every dollar they make tend to start working less when gov’t takes more than half on every dollar you make. In contrast to somebody who for instance owns a factory and you double the size of the factory you hire more managers and maybe your workload doesn’t increase much but you maybe double your income. I have seen a lot of colleagues do that. By the time you pay income and tax and then sales tax you wonder why you are working more than 40-50 hours a week… That doesn’t seem to work very well when have a doctor shortage
When I was in Sweden with pneumonia I had no problem getting a doctor visit in their private system. Public system would have been a wait. But their private system costs are not super inflated like the U.S. Norway is similar.
In any case, I didn’t see or hear of any doctor shortage issues. Granted, I was in the capital… I can’t say for more remote areas.
I have started to read about Danish taxes (hence why I thought your number was high)
Apples to Apples comparisons are hard because local taxes there are some much greater
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The Social Security retirement was originally 65. At the time, in 1935, life expectancy in the US was 61.7 years.
While the life expectancy for some who is 60 is longer than the average, the point at the time wasn’t to fund or help fund 15+ year of retirement.
I don’t have a problem raising the retirement age over time from 67 to 70,or even 72, if that’s one part of a fix. I also don’t have a problem with some form of eliminating the annual earnings cap.
One could say our SS retirement already is 70. That is the age at which your monthly payments max out. We give you the option of starting sooner, in exchange for lower monthly payments.
It has always seemed artificial to say our retirement age is 67 (or whatever other number, depending on your birth year). One could say it is 62, but you get more if you wait, or say it is 70 (as above). One could pick any number from 62 to 70 and use it as the baseline from which earlier or later retirements are adjusted.
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I was thinking of the doctor shortage we have in Canada. I think the Scandinavian countries have adequate numbers of doctors. I also think they are deployed more intelligently.
Fixed it for you