[dragonwriter]

> CAs tax rate when you factor in federal tax is comparable to the EU

Nominal rates might be, but tax burden is not. California tax burden is well under 15% GDP, and federal collections in the state are a tiny bit higher than state tax revenues, together still under 30% tax burden. EU overall tax burden is over 40% of GDP.

[srtjstjsj]

How do these numbers look when you count health care/insurance cost for CA instead of only for EU?

[dragonwriter]

> How do these numbers look when you count health care/insurance cost for CA instead of only for EU?

Then you are counting the cost of the thing you are complaining about not getting for your supposedly-equivalent taxes in order to try to justify the claim that the taxes are equal.

[danielheath]

Count school fees and student debt too - public schools in most of the EU are good enough that you don’t have to go private the way the US does.

[dragonwriter]

You don't need to go private in the US, either, that's largely a status display and a mechanism for non-educational social benefits more than an actual educational benefit; like the difference between outcomes in different public schools outcomes, the vast majority of difference between education outcomes in private and public schools is explained by factors outside of the school attended that determine educational outcomes (socioeconomic status, parental educational attainment, engaged parenting, etc.)

[rlanday]

30% federal plus 15% state is also higher than 40%, isn‘t it?

[KMag]

GP is saying 15% state plus 15+epsilon% federal < 40%