Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not misleading at all. I included the research link that lists a plethora of citations. Read and learn.
The income tax rate of 42% applies to those who have incomes above €54,950, which is $62,385. See how much flatter that is than the US tax code? Do you think middle class Americans will agree to pay that tax rate?
At a $100 000 a year income, a German would pay an average tax rate of 32-33%. In America, if you add up property taxes, payroll taxes, state and local income taxes, funds set aside for retirement and education (covered by taxes in other countries) and you're looking at that rate or more for many middle class Americans. And lets not forget the cost of health care premiums and deductibles and co-pays.
We're already paying about as much in health care taxes as people in Germany pay in taxes for their health care system that covers everyone. People should think about that for a second. We pay almost $5000 per person in taxes for health care (provided by private providers mostly). Thats actually more than what Germans pay per person for their single payer system, $4000 in taxes per person per year. We basically pay for single payer already but get a privatized system in return with massive co-pays, underinsurance and deductibles through the roof. And tens of millions not covered.
Yout do realize overdose and opioid related deaths have went up since they cracked down on pain pills, pill mills, etc, right? Thats because the former pill addicts switched to heroin once they could not get pills anymore, so now we have addicts using heroin with elephant tranquilizer in it, having no idea whats really in the drugs they are using!! At least with pain pills, they come from a legitimate pharmacy and they can be sure it is what they claim.
If the pharma industry was responsible for this as you claim, and they wanted to keep cranking out more and more narcotics (to increase profits, sales), that kind of backfired, being that its almost impossible to get a doctor to write a script for a strong opioid, if the pharma industry was as powerful as people think they are, why are their cash cow drugs impossible to get now? Usually when an industry wants to increase sales or profits, its not a good idea to restrict access to those products, or allow some govt agency to come in and regulate it to death either.
Its very obvious to me the DEA is in collusion with the cartels, when was the last time you heard on the news that ANY city or state was seeing a decrease in their illegal drug problem? This means the supply chain is NEVER threatened, the supply is always plentiful, (to every city and state in the nation!!!!), Im sorry, but this does not happen without collusion to some degree.
This viewpoint is nonsensical no matter how one rationalizes it.
At a $100 000 a year income, a German would pay an average tax rate of 32-33%. In America, if you add up property taxes, payroll taxes, state and local income taxes, funds set aside for retirement and education (covered by taxes in other countries) and you're looking at that rate for many middle class Americans. And lets not forget the cost of health care premiums and deductibles and co-pays.
We're already paying about as much in health care taxes as people in Germany pay in taxes for their health care system that covers everyone. People should think about that for a second. We pay almost $5000 per person in taxes for health care (provided by private providers mostly). Thats actually more than what Germans pay per person for their single payer system, $4000 in taxes per person per year. We basically pay for single payer already but get a privatized system in return with massive co-pays, underinsurance and deductibles through the roof. And tens of millions not covered.
There is the crux of the issue. We are focusing on the wrong problem. It's not the lack of universal health care, it's the actual cost of health care in this country. We pay way more for services and goods than we should be. If you can cross a border and get more than a 60% reduction in costs for the same goods, it's not the lack of universal health care we should be resolving first.
I know the service providers are struggling. I know the end users are struggling. It's the a-holes in the middle that demand a certain price be charged so they can give their discounted rates and make money off the transactions.
You said this before and I ignored it because it's not the heart of the issue (they can always rebalance their stock portfolios).
Actually, it is. You see, publicly traded corporations do not keep their profits, only closely held corporations do. Any publicly traded corporation's profits and gains in share value go to the investors, such as union pension funds, which then go to pay union pensions and retirement benefits.
Where else do you think all that money comes from?
At a $100 000 a year income, a German would pay an average tax rate of 32-33%. In America, if you add up property taxes, payroll taxes, state and local income taxes, funds set aside for retirement and education (covered by taxes in other countries) and you're looking at that rate or more for many middle class Americans. And lets not forget the cost of health care premiums and deductibles and co-pays.
We're already paying about as much in health care taxes as people in Germany pay in taxes for their health care system that covers everyone. People should think about that for a second. We pay almost $5000 per person in taxes for health care (provided by private providers mostly). Thats actually more than what Germans pay per person for their single payer system, $4000 in taxes per person per year. We basically pay for single payer already but get a privatized system in return with massive co-pays, underinsurance and deductibles through the roof. And tens of millions not covered.
Convince the middle class in America to pay a 32%-33% income tax rate, and maybe we could have national health care. Think they'll go for it? Oh, and we'd also have to implement a 19% VAT tax like Germany has. Everyone agree?
There is the crux of the issue. We are focusing on the wrong problem. It's not the lack of universal health care, it's the actual cost of health care in this country. We pay way more for services and goods than we should be. If you can cross a border and get more than a 60% reduction in costs for the same goods, it's not the lack of universal health care we should be resolving first.
I know the service providers are struggling. I know the end users are struggling. It's the a-holes in the middle that demand a certain price be charged so they can give their discounted rates and make money off the transactions.
The lack of universal health care and the cost of health care is related. A single payer system has far lower administration costs than the maze we have. And when we allow providers to simply charge whatever they feel like because...free market...and costs are prohibitive for "consumers", they will simply wait with treatment until its more serious and expensive or just simply die off. Its unjust, its cruel and far too expensive on top of that. We can cover everyone, pay less, get more, if we simply have the guts to take on the ruling class in this country, starting with big pharma and the big insurance corporations. The question is whether we have the guts to do it?
Convince the middle class in America to pay a 32%-33% income tax rate, and maybe we could have national health care. Think they'll go for it? Oh, and we'd also have to implement a 19% VAT tax like Germany has. Everyone agree?
Now you're just parroting again as Germans pay $4000 a year in taxes per person for their single payer system. We pay more in taxes for our current system almost $5000 a year per person in health care taxes, but in addition we pay more than $5000 a year per person out of pocket on top of that, or $22000 per year in private outlays for a family of four.
I'm using YOUR info. And, yes, Germans pay a 19% VAT. If you can get America's middle class to pay a 32%-33% income tax rate PLUS a 19% VAT tax, maybe we could have national health care. Everyone on board with that?
If you want to know what is happening in the Trump administration on the BigPharma issue, sign up to get automatic email updates from the White House. Sounds very promising. I think it was the head of HHS Azar or someone named Gottlieb who gave a press briefing but I don't remember when. I will search the White House youtube videos to see if I can find it. I am pretty sure Trump made an off the cuff remark to one of them at the Right To Try signing, asking the status. So maybe watch that video.
If you want to know what is happening in the Trump administration on the BigPharma issue, sign up to get automatic email updates from the White House. Here is one statement. Sounds very promising. I think it was the head of HHS Azar who gave a press briefing but I don't remember if it was before or after this statement:
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
