[smoothgrips]

I definitely would not give up amazon for free education, health care, etc... Those socialists implementations come at a very high cost. Yes, our current system is not well, but it's better than the government taking 60% of my earned income.

[heywoods]

I agree with what you are saying, but my effective tax rate this year in California was ~40%. All of the above benefits for an additional 20% sounds like a bargain.

[kristofferR]

The effective tax rate in Norway is around 45% BTW.

The max personal tax rate is 47.2%, but that includes a 8.2% pension contribution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

It's hard to directly compare though, since we have really high excise taxes/VAT, especially for things like cars.

[sampo]

> The effective tax rate in Norway is around 45% BTW.

But I believe your employer pays an amount equal to about 20% of your gross income as pension fund payments. I don't know if USA has similar "hidden" costs which makes direct comparison of grass salary difficult.

[kristofferR]

The maximum payroll tax in Norway is 14.1%. From a quick google it seems like the rates are about the same in the US:

"making the total Social Security tax 12.4% of wages and the total Medicare tax 2.9%."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Insurance_Contributions...

[adventured]

You wouldn't get all of the above benefits with our government, for the additional 20%. The US has an extremely inefficient government fiscally.

You might get properly funded roads; that is if they don't squander it between the time they lie and promise to use it for that and when it comes time to do road repair.

[mortehu]

> The US has an extremely inefficient government fiscally.

I saw this old blog post recently, supporting your assertion: https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r...

Basically, underground rail construction in US costs much more per kilometer than in other countries, and people in the comment section claim that the same holds true for other types of infrastructure construction, like bridges and highways.

[Cass]

I'm in Germany, my tax rate is ~40%, and we do get all those benefits.

[justinv]

To everyone commenting about their tax rates, that information is irrelevant without income levels in each area.

If Germany's tax rate starts at 40% from 40,000 EUR and California from $200,000; those are not equivalent.

[peteretep]

Marginal or total?

My marginal tax rate in the UK is 45% but I take home 75% of what I invoice.

[schwap]

I've never felt I got so little for so much tax as when I lived in California.

[run4yourlives2]

I think this is actually ignorant of any real experience with those systems.

Yes, there's a cost, but tax rates in the US aren't ultra low compared to every other country in the world.

It's not so much how much money you spend, but what you spend it on that is the real difference.

[refurb]

The US tax system offers a lot of deductions. When I first moved here I was paying ~12% in total taxes (state + federal) on $60K worth of income once I took advantage of the 401k deduction, mortgage interest deduction, etc,etc.

[run4yourlives2]

I'm not sure where you came from, but the US system offers more or less the same deductions as other systems. On $60K, the tax rate in Canada for example would be about 15-17%, before credits.

Add your health care costs to that 12% and I think you'll find Canada has the cheaper rate, and you still get to take advantage of many (not all) of the same credits a typical American can.

[robotresearcher]

There is no mortgage deduction in Canada. This is a big difference in the finances of many middle class families.

[run4yourlives2]

There's no mortgage deduction in US either. There's a mortgage interest deduction, which I'm sure while significant isn't a major variable in this eqaution overall.

[refurb]

Incorrect! Since most mortgage payments are >95% interest in the first few years, you could easily reduce your taxable income by 30-40% without a large mortgage.

You're also forgetting that the US doesn't have a national sales tax or high taxes on gasoline.

I would agree that the highest tax states in the US aren't that different than the lowest tax states in Canada (income tax only), my own person experience tells me that the US, on average, has a much lower tax burden than countries like Canada. And many jobs pay a higher salary.

Also the US brackets kick in at higher incomes. In Canada the highest bracket (29%) is over $136K. In the US, the highest bracket is 35%, but it doesn't kick-in until you earn more than $375K per year.

[cylinder]

I don't think you actually have any idea what personal tax rates are in these countries and are just repeating Tea Party nonsense. If you live in CA and NY you are paying European level taxes and getting basically nothing in return.

[_of]

Yes, this is a chocking fact I realized when I moved from Sweden to New York. In the former I payed ~30% in tax, whereas here in NY I pay the same. Because you have several levels of taxes in the U.S.: federal tax, income tax, state tax, and city tax, and in addition taxes like FICA, etc.

[robotresearcher]

Don't forget to add your health insurance premiums to your tax rate before comparing. I pay less in Canada than I did in California when you add health care costs. And I and my kids can never lose insurance from a run of bad luck.

[refurb]

Income taxes aren't the only tax. Don't forget sales tax, gas tax, import taxes.

I easily have more disposable income in the US than I did in Canada, even after taking into account insurance costs. Even living in a high-tax US state.

[Trezoid]

I'm in Australia where we get all that stuff (and amazon sells books and not a whole lot else) and my tax rate (in a relatively high tax bracket) is ~35%, a chunk of which is paying off my (government run, non-profit) university debt. Judging by the sibling comments, it seems like that high cost is about -5% tax at best...

[cylinder]

Fyi Amazon will ship televisions to Australia for about $130. Usually it still ends up cheaper than buying domestically.