#USpol #Norway #taxes #tax
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Worth adding also that European state-funded healthcare produces better health outcomes for less money than the US privatised system.
Plus - not all Norwegians pay more than Americans anyway. What tax you pay in Europe generally depends on what you can afford.
It's important to know that it's not even state-funded in most of Europe. There are tax-finaced single payer systems like in Britain or Denmark, and there are fully private systems like in Switzerland or the Netherlands. And there are mixed-systems like in Germany, where there is private insurance and public (NOT tax-financed) insurance. All of them have in common that health insurance is mandatory and that the health sector is heavily regulated. Patients are patients, not customers to be ripped off like in the states.
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@davidaugust
There are many other benefit to Norwegian taxes.
Lots of people have really good govt jobs here. Good conditions with good pay. This places pressure on corporations to offer good conditions as well. Everyone benefits even if they don't work for the govt.
They also have a wealth tax, which has the net effect of keeping housing affordable. Instead of investors buying lots of houses to rent out and driving up the cost of home ownership, people have a real shot at buying a home to live in.
The third benefit I should mention is everyone in Norway gets to bitch and moan about how much tax they pay, because they have so much time off work to gather and talk to one another! -
@davidaugust When you are paying for private healthcare, you are also paying the providers margin.
That makes it much more expensive that tax funded healthcare systems that don't take profits. About twice as much in the US than in the EU, with poorer outcomes. -
@WiseWoman As much as I love having free healthcare, parental leave etc, people in EU countries fall for fascism every other week.
@davidaugust@j_bertolotti @WiseWoman @davidaugust They forgot how communists, syndicalists and organising got them to a place of dignity. Thatcher and her lot have eroded the laws and institutions with austerity, technocracy, privatization and individualistic propaganda. It's still holding up though.
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I wish for once someone would do a side by side comparison of all taxes and health costs for an average citizen of these 2 countries.
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Worth adding also that European state-funded healthcare produces better health outcomes for less money than the US privatised system.
Plus - not all Norwegians pay more than Americans anyway. What tax you pay in Europe generally depends on what you can afford.
@GeofCox @davidaugust Another benefit of state run healthcare is that you have (some) democratic control over how they are administered.
A privatized system answers to shareholders and their thirst for profits. Also true for education, transportation water and other utilities... Common goods cannot be privately run. -
@davidaugust
I don't think people understand the idea of free Healthcare. Yes, paying for it in taxes, means it's not free. However, paying for it in taxes means, I don't have to go six years without glasses because I can't afford the exam. It means if my glasses break today, I can go to get an exam, get my prescription and go to get my glasses without taking from my food, rent, and clothing.
Not sure about glasses outside of the US, is that a separate charge?@faliate @davidaugust Optical, dental, prescriptions are not covered in Canada. Well, not universally covered.
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@davidaugust
How were you able to design such an admirable system of administration where all people benefit from what they pay in taxes? -
@davidaugust All told we're probably paying about as much. Especially with the mad king randomly taxing stuff now.
We just get nothing for it. Absolutely nothing. Every penny goes into corporate pockets now.
@nazokiyoubinbou
What can be done to change that system? -
Don't use that term for the RIGHTS Europeans have fought for, and which are only possible because we have democracies where the common good is not an empty phrase. That's the difference between having parliamentary representation of citizens and an oligarchy where people are hoping for "benefits" from their master, err..., employer.
@HarryMutt
Democracy is slowly vanishing which makes people not to enjoy the rights they once fought and are now paying for. What can bring power back in the hands of the people? -
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