Quote:
Originally posted by SexySarah
I still must disagree that the tax system in the EU causes lazyness (which is basically what you're implying).
It's like everywhere - people who want to succeed, work harder at it.
There's lazy people everywhere - it's just in the EU they're not quite so fucked as in other places if they don't have health insurance...etc.
And I disagree on your 'EU is fucked unless it changes' comment - does the EU have a debt level of 70% of it's GDP? The US does (and that doesn't include local government which takes the debt level to around 14 trillion which is 140% of GDP approx.)
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I am saying that the tax structure is a result of the social contract not the cause. Western European countries as a whole try to destroy capitalism and individual initiative by controlling the prime factor inputs of the economy, i.e. banks, heavy industries. Why start a bank when it will be nationalized? Why start a computer company when your only customer will be the government? As government takes on more responsibilities in society, it requires easier sources of taxation to pay for it. Taxing consumption is a favorite because collecting it is easier. The government enforces hyper-regulations to enforce this.