Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100% (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100% (2017)

#131

Post by vinni2 » Fri, Jan 19, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

ljf wrote: post #130

vinni2 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not saying people are not buying cars but the 180% or 150% or even 100% tax is not justified. From what I read it is now down to 85% tax which is much better. Dont know about UK my baseline for comparison is Germany (I lived there for 4 years) and I would move back to Germany any day if I can find the same job there. Cost of living, social welfare everything is a good balance between socialism and capitalism the…

Why is it not justified? What you you replace it with, or cut from current government spending. Most Danish on this thread and the few I know have been in support of the tax, which I find interesting.

If it is so critical for the welfare state why is there even a debate about cutting it? Why was it cut down to 85% from 180%? Also historically the taxes weren’t always this high and the welfare system did just fine.

None of the Danes here have given any convincing answer on why they support the higher taxation on car registrations.

Re: Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100% (2017)

#132

Post by ljf » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 8:47 AM UTC

vinni2 wrote: post #131

ljf wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it not justified? What you you replace it with, or cut from current government spending. Most Danish on this thread and the few I know have been in support of the tax, which I find interesting.

If it is so critical for the welfare state why is there even a debate about cutting it? Why was it cut down to 85% from 180%? Also historically the taxes weren’t always this high and the welfare system did just fine. None of the Danes here have given any convincing answer on why they support the higher taxation on car registrations.

I'm not saying it is critical, I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. But as I've said in previous posts on other threads, I'm a boring lefty in favour of high taxation, and I don't expect others to share my bug government viewpoint ;)

Re: Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100% (2017)

#133

Post by TheCoelacanth » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:25 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #46

andys627 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is - 100% tax on cars is libertarian. You charge car owners something closer to the costs they cause to society. Compare that to the USA where we heavily subsidize car ownership.

Government intervening in the market to internalize externalities is not libertarian. At least, not by the definitions used by any self-identified libertarians I've encountered. The libertarian approach is to privatize recovery of social costs so that instead of government internalizing the aggregated social cost into the transaction, each individual who can demonstrate an unlicensed adverse impact from the transacti…

So if I have asthma I can sue all drivers who drove in the area where I grew up and all coal plants operating in the area where I grew up for contributing to the development of my asthma with each one paying a few cents? That sounds insane.

Re: Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100% (2017)

#134

Post by vinni2 » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 10:20 AM UTC

ljf wrote: post #132

vinni2 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is so critical for the welfare state why is there even a debate about cutting it? Why was it cut down to 85% from 180%? Also historically the taxes weren’t always this high and the welfare system did just fine. None of the Danes here have given any convincing answer on why they support the higher taxation on car registrations.

I'm not saying it is critical, I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars. But as I've said in previous posts on other threads, I'm a boring lefty in favour of high taxation, and I don't expect others to share my bug government viewpoint ;)

> I'm just asking how we best cost the external impact of people owning and running cars.

I am not sure what you mean by "external impact" here. You should clarify that first before I can answer your question. Also I hope you will forgive me for not reading your previous posts on other threads!

I get that you are in favour of high taxation. I am not against taxation either. But the question is how much higher is acceptable? 200% is acceptable for you? 300%? where do you put the upper limit? How do you measure the cost of driving cars on the society and environment? was 180% by the Danish government justified in this regard? What was the rationale behind that? I haven't gotten answer to this question from any Danes here or in Danish news papers or in person after talking to many Danes while working in Denmark for 8 months.

May be it is the whole Scandinavian model to blame. Therefore, I am giving you the example of Germany where taxes on cars are significantly low but at the same time salaries (at least in the tech sector) are comparable to Scandinavia, education is free, healthcare is affordable and cost of living is one of the best in the western world.