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I'm working in the Middle East and one of my young engineers from Netherlands is going back in January to the land of 52% taxes. Here's the rundown for him compared to a US engineer:
- Engineer salaries in US are 50% higher than Netherlands (same company and grade)
- Taxes are 50% of income in Netherlands and about 20% in US
- take home pay after taxes in US is more than double
- He bought a Mazda CX-9 in ME for $42K...if he buys that in Netherlands, he pays a carbon tax of $45K (US zero), road use tax I think several thou per year, plus gas costs twice as much in the USA.
So the net result is he is dying to be sent to work at one of our US engineering offices and would do almost anything to get that.
By the way, I bought a Charger Hellcat a few days ago with 707 HP....I bet the carbon tax and VAT tax on that thing would be $200K+ in Netherlands.
I know a bunch of Norwegian IT/CS guys.
They say living there is a pain bc no one has enough money to do anything nice or fun...like own a car.
I have many family members in Norway and visit often. I was there this summer. Norway has been pretty homogeneous, but that is no longer so true. They have allowed many refugees, not only in the wave of the last few years, but for many years before. It is a small country, and undoubtedly, their coffers are aided by their North Sea oil.
When people tell me that socialized this or that never works, I always mention that my family members (many cousins of various sorts) all have or have retired from regular jobs. None are celebrities, kings of industry or politicians. But even with their regular jobs, they all have nice homes, cars just like ours, all have free health care (and I have seen its efficiency during some of their health crises) and free education. I have a couple of cousins with advanced degrees, all free. And many of them also own cottages out on a lake somewhere. They all have secure retirements, and most of them travel a great deal. All this in a socialized country. So tell me again why socialism is so bad?
It's not the homogeneity, it's the size of the population. I just don't think it would work as well with 350,000,000 people with 50 different state governments.
Less people live in Norway that live in my county (Harris County, TX).
Less people live in my country than in Texas, but this very forum works on an OS invented in my country. The WWW was invented in a country with a less population of 10 million.
Did Linus Torvalds say that "Linux is too small for being invented in Finland?" - No.
Did the Swiss say "oh, the Americans invented the Internet, but we are too small to develop it that anyone on the planet may use it"? - No.
Did India say that "we are too big for democracy" or China say "we are too big for capitalism"?
They just did. Just like the US can do anything if you just want to.
Less people live in my country than in Texas, but this very forum works on an OS invented in my country. The WWW was invented in a country with a less population of 10 million.
Did Linus Torvalds say that "Linux is too small for being invented in Finland?" - No.
Did the Swiss say "oh, the Americans invented the Internet, but we are too small to develop it that anyone on the planet may use it"? - No.
Did India say that "we are too big for democracy" or China say "we are too big for capitalism"?
They just did. Just like the US can do anything if you just want to.
I say it's much easier in smaller countries. And have you seen the corruption and graft of US politicians? Would you actually think they would do the right thing for their citizens with more taxes? I don't.
Yet another thread going about with the usual suspects shouting their agenda.
Norway was a poor Nordic country till they struck Gold with the North sea oil. They were a bit devious and colluded with UK about delineating the off shore boundaries and cut out Denmark from much off the oil beds. Read about it if you want to know how sudden influx of money makes even the socialist countries greedy.
They have done a good job investing the wealth. Imagine if we had a law stating that 50% of oil discovered in US should go to US Government. It is unlikely to get passed due to lobbyists for the big Oil.
Even if we get a 33% cut we are unlikely to create a trust fund. The conservatives would like it to be given back to the people or spent for some big defense projects. The liberals would like it to be given for more free money to poor, food stamps, college for all etc. Neither side will agree to a trust fund. And it will be spent even before it arrives in their hands.
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