Well, that is all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory.
Great post. I think the big problem comes in, however, not in that you want to improve matters, but the methods and specific goals along the way. In think you’d find that Conservatives want very much to end remaining racism, get a world with unlimited propserity and opportunity, and prefer equality to great disparity. The question is which is worse, the disease or the cure…
(I love de Camp, too)
I think you’d find a great many of conservatives (not a majority) want nothing less.
Thanks, BG! It’s rare to see you in such a generous mood. Yes, it’s true: Conservatives want nothing less than to end racism.
And, by Og, less is what they’ll get! 
True. Reality always gets you in the end.
Who has come up with an 80% tax rate for folks in Denmark?
Ohhh, you got me.
It was “Scandinavian countries”, not Denmark.
Post #14:
That’s because there’s no clear answer. On the one hand, we have a guy saying that the average is 35% on the other we have the Wikipedia saying that you can get up to 80 or 90% if you’re rich. Those aren’t mutually exclusive statements - both can be true, because they refer to different groups of people - but nor does the answer really matter. I also have no idea where the Wikipedia got its info from, but since the answer doesn’t matter, it’s not worth following up on.
There is some progressive tax rate and taxing scheme (we’ll call it C for Communism) at which everyone in a country’s wage becomes the same after taxes. What rate that would be at the top to achieve that, I have no idea. Any tax scheme like C would tax everyone at the bottom 0%, most people a fairly small percentage (like 30 or 40%), and a small minority of CEOs something like 99% or 99.9999% in order to bring them into line. Again, what that precise number is, I don’t know and don’t feel like doing the math to figure out.
If you do the math on the Wikipedia page, an 80% tax rate is thinkable in Sweden. But since we are talking about a progressive tax, it would only apply to wealthy CEOs and hence have no relevance to the majority of the populace (like amanset). They would all be taxed at a far more reasonable rate (like 25-35%). But even if the tax for the wealthy is 60% not 80%, it really doesn’t matter too much because the Swedish tax rate and scheme is not C. The natural gravity of wealth towards a minority of people is so strong that one probably can be taxed at 80% and - while adjusting the overal Gini Coefficient of the nation - still be wealthier than basically everyone in the country. The Scandinavian countries have wealthy people, who own big mansions, drive fancy sports cars, etc. This is a fact, so regardless of what the tax rate is for the highest tax bracket, whether it is grossly high (60%) or scarily high (80%) when you’re wealthy doesn’t really matter because it’s still not enough to stop a minority from owning most of the wealth. Sweden might have a high tax rate, but it isn’t Communist.
I suggest you listen to people who live here and show the actual numbers rather than a loose cite from an anonymous author in Wikipedia. Relevant link. If Wikipedia claims that we pay 80-90% tax, they’re using a pretty weird way of calculating tax. Of course, you can start with the marginal income tax in the highest bracket (50-something), add sales tax of 25% and some tobacco, alcohol or gasoline tax and end up claiming that since you bought a packet of cigarettes for the last 100 kroner you made this year, you’re paying 80-90% tax. Or you can add property tax to your income tax and claim that since you have a lot of capital and have hardly earned any taxable income last year, your property tax plus income tax is 80-90% of your income. Or you can claim that since about 70% of the sales price of gasoline in Norway is taxes (fuel plus sales tax), you pay OMG!!!11!!! MORE than 100%, since 50%+70%=120%.
If you compare tax leves you have to look at realistic examples and averages, and you have to look at total tax rather than the tax on the last krone earned in the highest tax bracket. The tax on your last krone in the highest bracket is AFAIK 50-something % for all the Scandinavian countries. However, since we’ve got a progressive tax rate, you don’t pay any tax on your first krone, and the average citizen pays 30-something % income tax (IIRC, that’s including Social Security and health “insurance” - which is baked into the general tax level) based on his/her whole income. And as previously stated, sales tax is 10-25% depending on what goods you’re buying (food usually has the lowest sales tax). That just doesn’t add up to 80-90% total tax rate no matter what Wikipedia claims.
BTW, I thought Wikipedia generally was regarded as a poor cite here…
(missed the edit window)
I just checked my own tax numbers. My personal income is roughly 25% more than the national average, and my family is also comfortably, albeit not excessively, above the median family income for my demographics (married couple with children). My total tax (including property tax) is 31% of my total income, and I pay another 2% to my compulsory pension fund.
These are real numbers, fairly representative for the average citizen
You were wrong.
With taxes, there are so many things to take into account. For instance, in Norway you only pay tax for 10,5 months a year. We pay half payroll tax in December to free up money for Christmas and get taxless “holiday money” in July. (12% of your gross income last year gets paid out by the state.) It’s hard to compare accross nations. (What’s the equivalent US function?)
We gather and shiver in front of gated communities, singing hymns of praise and gratitude. And the playful “releasing of the hounds”, a big sentimental favorite here.
Not really. All your income for all 12 months is included in the tax base, they just don’t deduct the same amount from your payslip every month.
ETA:
Wrong again. It’s included in your salary and is paid by your employer, not the state. You just aren’t paid the money until June next year (or when you quit, whatever comes first)
2: True, proper brain fart there.