Maybe, 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.
I'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...
Not 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.
The 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.
Let'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...
When 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.
Healthcare is actually a macro economic question. The private American system is much worse, and more expensive than the British public, universal system which is free at the point of delivery for everyone. Americans spend 17.9% of their GDP on healthcare, while the British only spend 9.6%. Americans are being ripped off by the American healthcare industry.
Personally, I rather pay a 10% tax to cover healthcare rather than 20% of my salary to insurance premiums.
The 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)
Comparing 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.
I 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.
A free market is denoted by the absence of intervention by government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. Under what circumstances are these $500 aspirin being purchased? I have a strong suspicion that some sort of cartel is involved. If not, I'd be happy to supply the market for far less.
Cartel, like in a corrupt system, right? Maybe just what I've said?
If you can get in the healthcare industry in the US you'll be a genius. Or probably a criminal, there's no legal way to get out of the current status quo without government intervention.
I like the free market, but you're oversimplifying reality.
There's another explanation (among many) for $n aspirin, that is to cover shortfalls from public health program reimbursements. It's a similar story with life flights. Not exactly a problem borne out of the private market, unless you're arguing that government intervention is corrupt?
Healthcare costs were already high in 2008. Setting aside the issue of how much impact the ACA had, the period following the passage of the ACA saw lower price increases than the period before. Last year prices increased at a higher rate again.
I think it's not true that the ACA caused that reduction (the recession is probably a much bigger factor), but it also didn't cause prices to increase faster than they were prior to the ACA.
Regardless 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.
For what it's worth, I'm almost certain that every company in this survey provides health insurance at no additional cost (or maybe a small cost, but probably not) to all of the employees surveyed.
No 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.
Just want to point out that there is a good reason for the higher taxes.