provfivetine
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Edwynn
Look up the econ stats on Sweden, Denmark, Germany, etc. for countries living in what you consider Bizzaro world.
The Swedish and Danish governments take 48% of aggregate output in revenue. Shocking, no? But more shocking news than that, residents of those countries pay far far less for health care than those in the US, whoever writes the check. They consistently have a positive current account balance, a positive private net savings figure, oftentimes a national budget surplus, have a far lower incarceration rate and much lower infant mortality rate than the third-world-level US, a much higher GINI index than the US, more often if not every year lower inflation and lower unemployment, actually know how to educate theirs kids, not a small consideration to that being much better parental leave laws, the workers are better paid and work a couple fewer hours per week, aside from more vacation time ...
I could keep going.
The difference is not that they have higher tax rates, it's that they know how to collect taxes in the first place, and do not have corporations writing regulatory and tax laws, both of which the US is incapable of preventing. Their corporate tax rates are lower because they actually collect what the law says is to be collected, unlike with the farce in the US. Greece and Portugal etc. have intractable tax laws with loopholes galore. Which of all these does the US represent more?
Further, which direction do some people keep arguing that we should be moving towards? USPIGS here we come, were it up to them.
We've been on the deregulation and more tax money to corporations rail for 30 years now. And after being 8 million jobs in the hole and many thousands of foreclosed homes and shuttered schools, some fools are trying to tell us that we need more of the same.
Screw von Mises. Half of Europe kicks his butt on a daily basis, year after year.
Austria included.
Sure. Those countries that you mention (Sweden, Denmark, Germany) are all embracing - at least in principle - austerity measures. Of course these countries would pay less for health care; there are far fewer residents living in those countries and they are far healthier than the average American (not because of government health care, but because of lifestyle choices: healthy diet, excerise, walking friendly cities, etc). Comparing Sweden, a country that has less than 10 million residents, with the United States is ridiculous. I agree with much of what you said actually (account balance, surpluses, lower incarceration rates, etc) - this is all true, but comparing a Nordic/Western European country with the US is off-base. You can't compare the two...
Back to the thread topic...The fact that you could even suggest that the US has been pursuing deregulation in these last 30 years is a sign of intellectual confusion. What deregulation has been perused? The only thing I could think of is repeal of Glass-Steagall by President Clinton in 1999, which hardly amounts to pursuing de-regulation for 30 years - especially with the recent boondoggles in legislation (The Patriot Act, Dodd-Frank Bill, etc).
Your post resembles an off-topic, knee-jerk, hissy fit rant that has nothing to do with the thread topic or with what I said. You make no arguments; just assertions without any argumentation. This post is about the US budget situation; not Western Europe. If you want to discuss that, then make a new thread.
< Message edited by provfivetine -- 4/17/2011 6:22:41 PM >
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Krugman on the Obama/Ryan proposals - 
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