Is the U.S. More Socialist than Scandinavia?
We are living by the socialist mantra that each shall provide to the rulers according to their means. The rulers will then use the money to subsidize those they who will support them politically with votes or money and to provide distracting circuses.
by Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.
It is in that we have a more progressive overall tax system than the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden do.
In Denmark, the poorest 30% pay 14.1% of all taxes. In the United States, the poorest 30% pay only 6.1% of taxes. In Denmark, the richest 30% pay 48.7% of all taxes. But in the United States, the richest 30% are soaked for 65.3% of all taxes.
Our poorest 30% in the U.S. pay only 43% of the portion of all taxes paid by the poorest 30% in Denmark, which most Americans assume is much more socialist than we are. Meanwhile, our richest 30% pay 34% more of the total tax burden than do the richest 30% in Denmark. These are not small differences in the degree of our socialism. They are Titanic, with Titanic consequences. We are more into the envy of class warfare than are the Scandinavians!
The United States has one of the most progressive tax systems in the world. None of the Scandinavian countries are as bad at soaking their richer citizens and at giving their poorer citizens a pass in taking responsibility for the costs of the very government programs on which they have an equal vote. Americans are clearly living the socialist dream that those with the greatest income will carry those with less income. We are living by the socialist mantra that each shall provide to the rulers according to their means. The rulers will then use the money to subsidize those they who will support them politically with votes or money and to provide distracting circuses.
As with all countries that have tried to live by socialist principles, we are finding that many of the more able or willing to produce are having second thoughts. We are finding that some of the more able and responsible shrug and retire early. Or that some simply slowdown and hold their cards until such blithering fools as Obama and Harry Reid are removed from their positions in the 2012 elections. The majority of businessmen are in such a holding phase just now. Our economy is in the doldrums as a result and we will not see any growth either until after the November 2012 elections with an Obama loss or until it is absolutely clear that he will lose. Atlas has Shrugged and is waiting to see if he should put the World back on his shoulder at a later time.
The tax comparisons come from Government vs. Markets: The Changing Economic Role of the State (2011) by Vito Tanzi. Tanzi is a senior economic official of the IMF. The tax burden numbers for Denmark and the United States are given by Richard W. Rahn from an article published in the Washington Times on 31 August 2011. That article also appears on the CATO Institute website here.
Charles R. Anderson is a materials physicist, a benevolent and tolerant Objectivist, a husband and a father, the owner of a materials characterization laboratory, and above all a thinking individualist. The critical battle of our day is the conflict between the individual and the state. We must be ever vigilant and constant defenders of the equal sovereign rights of the individual to life, liberty, property, and the personal pursuit of happiness. He blogs at An Objective Individualist
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