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Actual is going open-source

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Re: Actual is going open-source

#291

Post by beberlei »

tormeh wrote: post #143
beberlei wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To clarify, 42% of every euro earned above 57919€. Weighted average tax rate is still "just" 27% when earning 100.000€

Depends if you count the cost of statutory health insurance as a de-facto tax, in which case it's closer to 40% again. There's a bit more nuance to this (there's a contribution cap), but if you ever read that taxes in Germany are lower than 40% odds are the speaker is leaving out health insurance. Aside: The neat thing with the statutory health insurance is of course that they have to pay for your treatment, no matte…

Parent was talking about 42% tax rate, so taxes only. Yes you get deducted more for social services, health insurance, pensions and unemployment insurance push this up to 46% going to the government services when you earn 100k.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#292

Post by rglullis »

kortilla wrote: post #288
maccard wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And groceries. I was _shocked_ at how expensive buying fresh food was in the US, and funnily enough, the most desired food was imported from the EU and was far more expensive. Here's a great comparison - aged parmesan cheese from the supermarket [0] [1] is $11/lb here, or $17+tax in the US. This is the same for a huge amount of ingredients too; cheeses, meats + veg. I helped a friend do his grocery shopping in a trad…

> aged parmesan cheese from the supermarket [0] [1] is $11/lb here, or $17+tax in the US. No shit, it’s literally an import from Europe. It’s like comparing California wine prices in Las Vegas vs in Sydney. > veg. I helped a friend do his grocery shopping in a trader joes Trader Joe’s is not a grocery store for middle class people. It’s a high end convenience store. Unless you’re really well-off, you only buy a few s…

No. Imported wine is quite often cheaper than domestic ones in the US.

Also, you want to compare the quality of products and you can not base yourself on Walmart for that. The average American eats horribly compared to the European counterpart.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#293

Post by maccard »

kortilla wrote: post #288
maccard wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And groceries. I was _shocked_ at how expensive buying fresh food was in the US, and funnily enough, the most desired food was imported from the EU and was far more expensive. Here's a great comparison - aged parmesan cheese from the supermarket [0] [1] is $11/lb here, or $17+tax in the US. This is the same for a huge amount of ingredients too; cheeses, meats + veg. I helped a friend do his grocery shopping in a trad…

> aged parmesan cheese from the supermarket [0] [1] is $11/lb here, or $17+tax in the US. No shit, it’s literally an import from Europe. It’s like comparing California wine prices in Las Vegas vs in Sydney. > veg. I helped a friend do his grocery shopping in a trader joes Trader Joe’s is not a grocery store for middle class people. It’s a high end convenience store. Unless you’re really well-off, you only buy a few s…

Given we're talking about why salaries are higher in the US, i think it's fair to point out the comparison of items that are possible to buy in a normal supermarket here. I searched for parmesan in Walmart and could only buy an entire wheel for ~$26/lb.

The people who I'm comparing myself to in the US strive to buy imported European food, so that's the comparison I'm going to end up making.

Even basic things like fresh vegetables and fresh meat far more expensive than they are in supermarkets here.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#294

Post by [deleted] »

rglullis wrote: post #234
daenz wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think they should be forced to stay? Suppose it was easy for all of those high performers (who wanted to leave) to move to the USA. You would lose out on that extra tax revenue, and it would undermine the redistribution scheme.

You don't need to suppose. It already happened recently in France. When the Socialist government increased the marginal tax rate to 70% for millionaires, there was a huge capital flight and they lost revenue.

[deleted]

Re: Actual is going open-source

#295

Post by maccard »

daenz wrote: post #224
maccard wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And many of us who exist in the top quintile are perfectly happy with that, knowing that we are net contributors to a better place to live for others.

Do you think they should be forced to stay? Suppose it was easy for all of those high performers (who wanted to leave) to move to the USA. You would lose out on that extra tax revenue, and it would undermine the redistribution scheme.

Thats a big stretch and a huge thought experiment, and way out of scope of what we're talking about (but no I don't). Any sort of systemic change on that scale would make me reevaluate where I live though - if for example I lived on a country that flip flopped between right wing and centrist every four years I would be pretty uncomfortable with that.

> Suppose it was easy for all of those high performers

A bit of a nitpick, but an important one. High performers and high earners are not the same thing.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#296

Post by maccard »

rglullis wrote: post #234
daenz wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think they should be forced to stay? Suppose it was easy for all of those high performers (who wanted to leave) to move to the USA. You would lose out on that extra tax revenue, and it would undermine the redistribution scheme.

You don't need to suppose. It already happened recently in France. When the Socialist government increased the marginal tax rate to 70% for millionaires, there was a huge capital flight and they lost revenue.

No, France didn't threaten to force high earners to leave, they tried to enforce a higher tax on the absolute absolute highest earners in the country. Even making 3-400k you would have been unlikely to have been affected by this. Funnily enough, you'll also notice the bluster was about people leaving to other EU states and not to the US.

Also, to call the French government socialist I'd completely laughable. Maybe in comparison to somewhere like Hungary, sure.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#297

Post by dzikimarian »

throwaway413 wrote: post #252
presentation wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it is objectively surmountable and if it personally isn’t to them that means that the money is more important to them than achieving that goal to make a business. I don’t see how this isn’t a choice? “I’m not doing it since the insecurity of not having a high income is scarier than my desire to open a business” That said I do bet that if you try to do your thing and it really doesn’t work out you probably can go…

Because putting food on the table so your family can eat isn’t a choice. Don’t have savings to burn through as you do that? Then it’s not a choice. Just one example. Morality may not be objective, but it surely isn’t just personal either. That’s what makes it a nuanced discussion, and not just a choice one makes. By deciding you want to do that in the future but first you need to save, are you deprioritizing it, or p…

Most people in his country put food on family table without US-level software developer salary. It's hard to lower expectations of life quality, but let's not dramatize.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#298

Post by rglullis »

maccard wrote: post #296
rglullis wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to suppose. It already happened recently in France. When the Socialist government increased the marginal tax rate to 70% for millionaires, there was a huge capital flight and they lost revenue.

No, France didn't threaten to force high earners to leave, they tried to enforce a higher tax on the absolute absolute highest earners in the country. Even making 3-400k you would have been unlikely to have been affected by this. Funnily enough, you'll also notice the bluster was about people leaving to other EU states and not to the US. Also, to call the French government socialist I'd completely laughable. Maybe in…

I am not talking about Macron, I am talking about Hollande, which is (was?) the leader of the Socialist Party.

And I may be wrong about it, but I think that he increased taxes all across high-income brackets, not just the absolute top. And that certainly leads to a game-theoretical equilibrium.

To me (and I assume others) the following calculation comes into play:

- for what I pay in taxes, do I get a reasonably good public services back? I am not saying that I want to account for every euro, but I don't want to feel like I did in Brazil, paying 38% effective tax rate and receiving virtually nothing back in public services and still having to pay again for private healthcare, private education for the kids, etc...

- how much money do I have left in the bank after I paid all my expenses and taxes, i.e, what is my saving power?

If I had a 250k€/year brutto income, it wouldn't be too difficult to show that I would be better off in Switzerland (higher CoL, but way lower tax rate) or in Greece (similar tax rates, less return on public services, but way lower CoL). If Germany decided to increase the effective tax rate, this threshold would go down significantly.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#299

Post by fullstackchris »

Hi! Saw your remarks about the difficulty of maintaining mobile apps - I agree this is an extremely large overhead, Apple and Google make it an absolute pain most of the time, but if you are willing to put in initial effort to port the screens / main functionality to a mobile friendly website, you can create a hybrid app through a WebView and significantly reduce the shipping times / app store burdens (and most updates, if not all, can go through the web and thus webview, instead of having to build and ship a native app(s)!)

If it helps. I don't know the technicalities of the mobile app at all, i.e. how many native functionalities the mobile app needs, if any.

Re: Actual is going open-source

#300

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway413 wrote: post #252
presentation wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it is objectively surmountable and if it personally isn’t to them that means that the money is more important to them than achieving that goal to make a business. I don’t see how this isn’t a choice? “I’m not doing it since the insecurity of not having a high income is scarier than my desire to open a business” That said I do bet that if you try to do your thing and it really doesn’t work out you probably can go…

Because putting food on the table so your family can eat isn’t a choice. Don’t have savings to burn through as you do that? Then it’s not a choice. Just one example. Morality may not be objective, but it surely isn’t just personal either. That’s what makes it a nuanced discussion, and not just a choice one makes. By deciding you want to do that in the future but first you need to save, are you deprioritizing it, or p…

[deleted]
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