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US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

peoplespolicyproject.org

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Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#161

Post by munk-a »

tathougies wrote: post #143
titanomachy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced that US military intervention in the last 40 years has led to a net increase in global security. Although the existence of the US military probably helps. As long as they don't do anything. I'm undecided on this one.

> Although the existence of the US military probably helps. As long as they don't do anything. But the US has one of the largest all-volunteer armies in the world, with some of the most advanced technology, so it makes sense that it costs more. My comment is not a justification for America's military power, it is simply an observation that American tax payers pay for something the rest of the world gets to enjoy for…

Partially yea, it may be that using the word "security" in that first post was a wording error that caused a bunch of people to misunderstand you. But then, in this follow up, you've mentioned that Norway is benefiting from the US lowering the supply of oil (I assume via setting it, and the people who extract it, on fire)... I am not Norwegian and can't speak as to their preference, but given that Norway is currently scaling back their oil exploration efforts along with the general character of Norwegians that I've met, I'll make an effort. I'm going to assume that the Norwegian ethical stance is against the US starting wars in the middle east and killing people to make their oil a bit more valuable.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#162

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #132
shams93 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there's education costs in the US, say you want your kid to go to CalArts, that's $50,000 a year just for tuition, so your kid gets out of school $500k in debt with a degree in performance art and a $3,000 a month student loan payment for life.

On the other hand, a typical state college is closer to $10,000. Yes, it's not Ivy League, but it does the job.

State colleges vary widely in quality, though.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#163

Post by illirik »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #132
shams93 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there's education costs in the US, say you want your kid to go to CalArts, that's $50,000 a year just for tuition, so your kid gets out of school $500k in debt with a degree in performance art and a $3,000 a month student loan payment for life.

On the other hand, a typical state college is closer to $10,000. Yes, it's not Ivy League, but it does the job.

Including room, board, and books, you're looking at something in the $20,000 range, and it varies a lot by state. If you live in Virginia, for example, undergraduate total cost of attendance for UVA is around $32,000 (https://sfs.virginia.edu/cost/18-19).

EDIT: There is also the case where you may live in a state with insufficient opportunities for higher education. For example, neither of North Dakota's two public research universities (U of ND, ND State) rank inside the US News top 200, and both of those schools will still charge you around $20,000 per year. Germans or Brits will be able to receive subsidized educations at any university in their countries.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#164

Post by jimbokun »

morsma wrote: post #130
mschuetz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and cost of health insurance in Austria is just 7,65% of your income, and it covers your children. When I've worked in the US, I've paid just as much for health insurance and still had high out-of-pockets and deductibles on top of that.

For me it's the opposite. I moved from Denmark to the US, and I pay around $400 in health insurance premiums (health, eye, and dental) for a whole family. In Denmark, only health is covered, so for eye and dental many go out-of-country to get it cheap. The US is much cheaper for all health insurances, except if your poor. Obama tried to fix that, but made it worse and more expensive for everyone (socialism).

According to the article, workers in Denmark see 26.7% of compensation go to "compulsory payments" including taxes and health care. Workers in US pay 43.2%.

Why should I trust your figures over the article? Are you including the "employer contribution" toward your taxes and health care premiums?

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#165

Post by munk-a »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #147
titanomachy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced that US military intervention in the last 40 years has led to a net increase in global security. Although the existence of the US military probably helps. As long as they don't do anything. I'm undecided on this one.

It doesn't have to be an intervention. Not so long ago it was nice to have a couple of tank divisions located in West Germany doing nothing. Doing nothing. Just looking at their Soviet colleagues stationed across the border.

I assume that's precisely what the parent comment meant, that the appearance of force was enough to keep people in line - it's only when America flexes their muscles that things move into the grey area.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#166

Post by throwaway6734 »

vonmoltke wrote: post #68
maxxxxx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family in Germany throws a fit when they have to pay 50 Euro for something. In the US you can happy if your cost for seeing a doctor is less than 4 digits.

> In the US you can happy if your cost for seeing a doctor is less than 4 digits. My wife and I have never paid four figures for a doctor visit, despite having two surgeries (one oral), a calf strain, and a dislocated shoulder (with ER visit) between us. The state of medical care in the US is bad enough as it is; you don't need to make up hyperbolic bullshit to make it seem worse.

Wife passed out on the way out of the hospital after getting an IUD put in.

With insurance we paid $800 for her to lay in the Er for 3 hours.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#167

Post by mikeash »

silotis wrote: post #150
mikeash wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SS trust fund is currently about $3 trillion. While the money you pay in isn’t specifically set aside for your own use (the whole point of the program is to pool everyone together), it’s not like a Ponzi scheme where contributions from people paying in are directly used to make payments to beneficiaries.

The SS trust fund is an accounting fiction. The vast majority of it is held as treasury securities and the cash has long since been spent. Thus the federal government has offsetting liabilities for all of those assets. Once SS starts spending more than it takes in, the feds will have to raise capital to cover the shortfall, same as if the trust fund did not exist.

If a private company holds treasury securities, we don’t call that a fiction. What’s the difference?

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#168

Post by jimbokun »

ddoolin wrote: post #141
exodus_de wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess - your deductible is 6000$?

Is that really relevant though? That should never cost anywhere near that much.

It's relevant because the doctor probably charged EVEN MORE than $6,000, and mikeash only saw $6,000 of that because it was his entire deductible.

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#169

Post by mikeash »

kelnos wrote: post #139
mikeash wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we could stand to do significantly less worshipping of our soldiers, but a lot of the ones boarding commercial flights are on their way to places like Afghanistan where groups of unfriendly armed crazy people will attempt to kill them.

I agree with you in principle, but calling people you've never met from another country and culture "unfriendly armed crazy people" is a big, sad reason why we even need militaries in the first place. I imagine many of those "crazy people" in Afghanistan consider the US military to be invaders who won't leave them alone. It's of course all not that simple, but... why the need for unnecessary name-calling? It just per…

I would agree with you in the case of a generic enemy, but I see no problem with calling religious extremists “crazy.”

Re: US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums

#170

Post by peteradio »

jakobegger wrote: post #92
Someone1234 wrote: post #19

I moved to the US from a country with socialised medicine. When you include premiums then taxes in both were roughly similar if not a little higher in the US (ignoring cost of living differences). But even that doesn't include the real sting on the tail of US medicine. You pay a fairly high health insurance premium, but if you actually need health services you then pay again through the nose even with insurance "disc…

As a point of comparison, in Austria: - taking a kid to the ER costs nothing - taking a kid to a GP or a pediatrician costs nothing - staying a night at the hospital costs around 15€ - getting a prescription from the pharmacy costs 5€

Oh yea but how many billionaires does your country have. Hah!
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