Getting a Whole Lot Less for Your Money

Why now? has a post linking to this post at Facing South that compared the taxes paid in the US to those in the UK and France. Conservatives are always throwing up the "fact" that people in countries like the UK and France have to pay so much more in taxes in order to support their "welfare states," which provide their citizens with services such as universal healthcare that we in American could only dream of. As if having to pay slightly higher taxes in order to have free, universal healthcare were even a bad thing as opposed to having no insurance or inadequate insurance and getting saddled with outrageous medical bills were a bad thing, it actually turns out that differences in what people pay here v. France and the UK are not that much.

A person making $50,000 a year would pay the following in combined payroll and income tax: (US) $14,445
(UK) $13,916 and (France) 18, 415. The amount this person would pay in France is higher because "the French employee is paying the extra 8% in supplemental insurance so 100% of their medical care is covered." In France "the basic plan... covers 70% of their health care costs, [thus with the basic plan] the payroll tax would only be $6500, and their total taxes would be $14,415." Not only are the discrepencies slight, as Facing South points out, we should "keep in mind that the US employee (and/or his/her employer) still has to pay for health insurance."

This post also has some interesting comparisons on value added taxes, which is similar to sales tax. The post is not very long and is well worth reading. It looks to me like we're pretty much getting screwed.