On 9/13/2017 9:55 PM, Bruce wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Sep 2017 21:29:25 -0400, Ed Pawlowski > wrote:
>
>> On 9/13/2017 8:41 PM, Bruce wrote:
>>> On Wed, 13 Sep 2017 17:33:36 -0700 (PDT), "
>>> > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>> You are living in a dream world. I would object very loudly if I had
>>>> to pay up to 80% of my salary so I can provide housing to some lazy
>>>> character that wants everybody else to provide him a place to crash.
>>
>>>
>>> I don't know of any country in our (western) world, where people have
>>> to pay 80% (or 70% or 60% etc) of their salary in taxes.
>>>
>>
>> Some get rather high, over 50%. Then add in taxes on goods. cost of
>> utilities
>> http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/c...the-world.html
>> Sweden has the second highest income tax rate in the world, and the
>> highest in Europe, with a 56.6% deducted from annual income. Though
>> Swedes may be taxed heavily, sales on residential properties are
>> exempted from taxation there.
>
> If you make under USD 54,500 in Sweden, you pay 31%. If you make more,
> you pay 51-56% over the excess. So you can't say the Swedes are paying
> 56.6%.
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Sweden#Income_tax>
>
> And it's also about what you get for your tax payments. Are their
> roads better than in the US? Is their healthcare better? Is their
> elderly care better? Is their crime less?
>

Difficult to make true comparisons. While taxes are higher, it often
includes healthcare that in the US is paid for by the individual or his
employer. A gallon of gas in the US is about $2.50 now and in Europe it
is often triple due to other taxes. We have sales tax, they have VAT.
I don't know what they do for property tax.
Published tax rates mean little unless you study the whole system.