Hehe... it's the tax you are after. Ask somebody you know who has been in Copenhagen lately, if there are more bums around here than in the U.S. I doubt it seriously.
People with money often have different ways to avoid taxation, and people without much money have free healthcare, free schools and universities etc.
If you want to compare, please make a life-time comparison between realistic scenarios in the two societies. You will find that in some cases, Europe is better, and in some cases, U.S. is better. I know several researchers who have worked in Silicon Valley, who say that if they would stay over there, their life-time earnings would not be better than in Europe.
In Europe, a 40 y.o. programmer with no employees under him typically makes about $70,000 (10-15% pension to be added on top), has at least 5 weeks holidays during the year and a 40-50 hour workday with 10-40 minutes travel to work in each direction. There is often no debt at all from studying, also if the parent weren't able to support the studying kids. Freelance payment for an ordinary programmer per hour are $70-$180 excluding tax, depending on abilities. But yes, we pay approx. 50% in income tax.
Lars. |
