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Politics : A US National Health Care System?

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To: Mary Cluney who wrote (2733)11/5/2007 11:22:43 AM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 42652
 
There are quite a few problems with that article.

1 - It mis-categorizes Hayek's points. Hayek attacked socialism as the road to serfdom. He didn't pick out some personal income tax rate and say "this rate is ideal.

2 - Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. are decidedly not laissez-faire countries.

3 - The Scandinavian countries are small in terms of population. Also they are far from being the only examples of higher taxed countries. Sach's is cherry picking his examples.

4 - Even with the cherry picking, the data doesn't support Sach's conclusion. The US and Ireland are wealthier than almost all of the Scandinavian countries (by per capita PPP GDP). Canada is wealthier than Sweden. In recent years Ireland has performed better than the Scandinavian countries.

5 - To the extent that the Scandinavian countries have had economic success, one major reason, is one that Scah's points out but doesn't make much of - "Tax rates on capital are relatively low." Low taxes on capital is something Hayek would have been very likely to support. Its hardly evidence that Hayek was wrong, or that high tax rates are a good thing.

For more see
If Sweden was a U.S. state, how rich would it be?
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