odanny
Diamond Member
- Thread starter
- #21
And you know this how? I feel like you have the impression that all of England is like London. Outside of London, the English are fairly poor compared to Americans.
Have you been to Europe? I have a multitude of times and have spent significant time there. Their standard of living is not as good as ours on average. You guys seem to view them as having these cozy lifestyles because of their big social welfare states, but that's really not the case. For starters, they have less disposable income than we do because they pay out their asses in taxes to afford those welfare states and they would have to fork out even more if we didn't have our military bases all over their continent propping up their defense. Middle class people in many of those countries pay half or more of their income in taxes. They have smaller living quarters in general than we do, drive smaller cars, the price of gas is astronomical. It's common for many families to have only one car, as opposed to us in the U.S. where each parent has one and possibly the kid.
There are some things over there I like better than here, but I guarantee you that those of you always complaining about how much better they are than we are would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a European lifestyle.
I get what you're saying, and I'm not naive to think that people over there have more money. Yes, they pay a lot in taxes, and that is a non starter here. The one thing keeping this country from adopting anything related to socialism is taxing the middle class to spread the wealth around.
And that works so well for the wealthiest 1%, they could not be happier about that, and they continue to peddle the notion that Americans have it made because we pay low taxes. Except, well, we don't. The middle class does not have loopholes that the rich do, we don't have offshore tax shelters, and when speaking of "per capita", the middle class often pays more in taxes than the rich, based on the percentage of income going towards paying taxes.
That said, there is efficient rail systems in Europe so not everyone needs a car, Americans don't have the same luxury. Furthermore, the onslaught of privatization of everything has driven up prices in this country to often unaffordable levels for many. The most obvious and egregious example is healthcare. Someone in England who is out of work and gets hurt, and is living off their savings or inheritance, will not lose everything if they have an extended hospital stay. In America, you're screwed.