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The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

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Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#41

Post by Symbiote »

jdmoreira wrote: post #8

> American parents on both sides of the political spectrum know this and are increasingly frustrated by how little they have been offered in this country—particularly in exchange for the high taxes they pay. How much taxes do Americans think we Europeans pay? Those dutch parents are paying close to 60-70% taxes once you account also for VAT

The OECD puts it at around 35% for a single worker, and 30% for a one-earner married couple with two children.

Even if they spend their entire income on taxable goods and services — which is very unlikely, as rent/mortgage doesn't have VAT — that would mean 21% of the remaining amount were taxed, so 55-50%.

https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/taxing-wages-netherlands...

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#44

Post by [deleted] »

username135 wrote: post #13
jdmoreira wrote: post #8

> American parents on both sides of the political spectrum know this and are increasingly frustrated by how little they have been offered in this country—particularly in exchange for the high taxes they pay. How much taxes do Americans think we Europeans pay? Those dutch parents are paying close to 60-70% taxes once you account also for VAT

Source that please

[deleted]

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#45

Post by tempsy »

softwaredoug wrote: post #10
MBlume wrote: post #4

I'm strongly in favor of expanding the US social safety net, but I don't want to neglect other obvious factors here. Dutch children are able to walk or bike outside unsupervised. In the US they'd risk either being killed by a driver, or stopped by an overzealous neighbor or police officer. I think this kind of freedom of movement has a big effect on happiness, it certainly did for me. ETA relevant links: https://yout…

Cars ruin cities - https://www.ft.com/content/27169841-7ee3-481e-919d-41b247e40...

Urban cities in the US have some the worst public schools in the country which is a much bigger issue.

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#47

Post by castlecrasher2 »

nicoco wrote: post #14
sebastianconcpt wrote: post #3

And the most successful ones?

Do you mean money-wise? What's the point if you're not happy? The only thing I want for my kids besides them being happy, is that their happiness does not depend on the misery of other human beings. Funnily enough, "success" is often used as a synonym for "being a sociopath born with a silver spoon who does not give a damn about not making others miserable".

>The only thing I want for my kids besides them being happy, is that their happiness does not depend on the misery of other human beings.

Not a single sane person has ever suggested that success depends on the misery of other human beings.

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#48

Post by ajmurmann »

dopamean wrote: post #11
MBlume wrote: post #4

I'm strongly in favor of expanding the US social safety net, but I don't want to neglect other obvious factors here. Dutch children are able to walk or bike outside unsupervised. In the US they'd risk either being killed by a driver, or stopped by an overzealous neighbor or police officer. I think this kind of freedom of movement has a big effect on happiness, it certainly did for me. ETA relevant links: https://yout…

I read a blog post a while back that had the idea that the reason so many American's remember their college years so fondly is because for many of them it was the only time in their lives where they lived somewhere walkable.

Not only walkable, but with a lot of third spaces and those get actually used because your peer group cannot afford lots of private space. You likely even live in a dorm or with roommates.

Anecdotally I spent 2 years of my undergraduate living by myself a 10 minute drive away from University in a little village outside of town. I then moved in with roommates to live walking distance between University and downtown. It's obvious from what time most of my fondest memories are.

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#49

Post by seanmcdirmid »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #29
jeffbee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have assumed some level of income. How much?

The comparison is very difficult. Just incorporating health insurance premiums (even the portion that is employer paid) paid from pretax income plus some proportion of deductible/out of pocket maximum involves assumptions that change the calculations. Not to mention the myriad other ways to defer or exempt future income from taxes such as 401k/IRA/roth/529/HSA/etc. And then on top of that, you have 50 different state…

> The comparison is very difficult. Just incorporating health insurance premiums (even the portion that is employer paid) paid from pretax income plus some proportion of deductible/out of pocket maximum involves assumptions that change the calculations.

I'm pretty sure the Netherlands has payroll taxes (employer paid) as well, so you would have to balance that assessment with what employers are paying.

Re: The happiest kids in the world have social safety nets

#50

Post by bigfudge »

dopamean wrote: post #7
sebastianconcpt wrote: post #3

And the most successful ones?

What if you measured success as health + happiness + economic prosperity.

Yeah, but then you’re into utility weighting functions. It’s simpler to just reify wellbeing/happiness because the others are all essentially subsidiary. I think there is probably a Pareto optimum for wellbeing which is not a simple function of health and monetary prosperity.
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