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We're not quite there yet with the data we have :). Anecdotally though, it seems like companies in Europe pay less and take out more taxes.
by stepny 10y ago
We're not quite there yet with the data we have :). Anecdotally though, it seems like companies in Europe pay less and take out more taxes.
- trelltron 10y agoMaybe, but on the flip side, I finished Uni with about £20k debt, in the most benign from that debt can take, and working in software I immediately earned more than that per year. I also never had to care about medical bills (still don't) because of the NHS. Just want to point out that there is a good reason for the higher taxes.
- binarymax 10y agoNot to mention the higher level of vacation time. Starting allocation in the UK is about 25 days plus 11 bank holidays. In the USA its typically 10 days plus 9 public holidays.
- timoth 10y agoThe legal minimum in the UK which just about everyone is entitled to is 28 days paid holiday assuming a full time job [1]. That can include bank holidays which are 8 per year for the vast majority of the population (1 or 2 more for Scotland and Northen Ireland I think). For example, my first job was 25 days + 8 days of bank holidays and then you could earn up to 5 extra days if you stayed with the company long enough. Other jobs were all 22 + 8. [1] https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/entitlement https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/entitlement
- pc86 10y agoIt's almost as if standard and cost of living are incredibly complex equations that you can't boil down into an HTML table.
- progressive_dad 10y agoLet's throw schools in there... no use taking a 20k raise to move to Chicago if you have a child for instance. You'll pay more than that for the cheapest private school. If you want to use neighborhood schools you can move to Oak Park... and pay 20k in taxes instead...
- laurencerowe 10y agoI'm from the UK and now live in California. Income tax rates aren't very different. As a proportion of GDP, Government spending in the US is only a couple of percentage points lower than the UK. The US actually spends slightly more on public healthcare than the UK, 7.9% vs 7.3%. Of course healthcare here is so horrifically inefficient that another 8.5% of GDP is spent privately... http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=HEALTH_STAT http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=HEALTH_STAT
- dogma1138 10y agoYep cut the compensation by about 50% and increase the taxation by 50% :)
- Swinx43 10y agoYes that definitely sounds about right. :)
- jahnu 10y agoYeah but healthcare education and pensions ;) That tax is buying us stuff.
- golergka 10y agoIneffectively and for core vote base, not you. This is an old debate.
- jahnu 10y agoRegardless of what one thinks of the tax it's clear one can't compare salaries after taxation. Fact is I don't spend anything on healthcare. In the US I would need insurance. I don't save for my kids university education because it will be free. In the US I would have to. Comparing pre tax income is more useful, by and large.
- dogma1138 10y agoInsurance in the us is also cheaper in paying 2300 a year for private insurance (AXA) so I won't have to deal with the NHS on every silly issue.
- phaemon 10y agoNo it's not. Public healthcare spending in the US is higher, per capita, than spending on the NHS. And how the buggery are you managing to spend £2300 a year on health insurance in the UK? That's crazy expensive. Ok, it's less than people in the US pay, but it's still mad for UK.
- mbesto 10y agoVery true. But the cost of living is much cheaper (comparative to where Google/FB are HQ'd).
- hollander 10y agoWhen I have a 200k income, I don't really care about getting welfare, and I can probably pay healthcare myself. But I don't have that kind of income, and then healthcare, pension and social benefits really count. We may pay more tax, but I'm glad we have the backup system that keeps you going when you're sick or unemployed.
- mahyarm 10y agoThe sad reality is if your employed, you have good health insurance, and if your not, your visa isn't there either and your back to europe/canada with social services anyway :/ American also has Social Security & 401k (pensions) and health care for the old (medicare) / poor (mediCAL, medicaid), and some social services (public school, various state programs in california)
- kspaans 10y agoComparing pensions does get tricky very quick. In Canada for example there is a deduction from your paycheque for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) (assuming you don't live in Québec), but many employers will also have matching-contribution RRSP (same as a 401k) plans. So when you retire you get government pension plus private sector pension (which would be a mix of what you contributed and what your employer matched). The UK is similar where you get a government pension plus many employers have a tax-deferred retirement savings plan they will contribute to.
- eulji 10y agoI am from the ostbloc som my taxes are are being spent on bribing, corruption etc. We might not be paying that huge taxes but it's still a lot. I am less compassionate than the other folks in Europe and would really prefer a more capitalistic system at least in my country. But we Europeans are....ehhhh.
- NetStrikeForce 10y agoCorruption is a problem by itself - it doesn't make the social democracies wrong. And expect corruption in the private system, too. There's no other explanation for $500 aspirins :-)