Stupid is as stupid does and stupidity votes Obama

[Ben Kenobi]

Canada actually comes almost on par with the US once you subtract the ridiculous health care private expenditures Americans need for slightly inferior results.

Canada's cost of living is much higher. Take the same income up there, and the same income down here - you can live on about half what you need up there, here. Easily.

Gas is less, food is less, electronics is less, cars are less, phones are less. I pay 4 dollars for a block of cheese here that's 8, 9, 10 dollars up in Canada.

[Ben Kenobi]

Yes

Thank you Asher. I think we're done here.

[Ben Kenobi]

You can believe whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. I would never deny those rights to you. HOWEVER, that does not mean you are not a bigot.

Generally the label bigot, implies judgement towards opinions that you believe ought not to be held by other people.

Asher's already admitted that he doesn't believe in freedom of conscience on this issue. He's willing to force other people to act against their own conscience. It's not exactly surprising either. Most 'liberals' (who are really statists), believe this. They believe their opinions are correct and that the state should be employed to punish dissenters.

Do you believe Guy - that all doctors should be trained to do abortions?

[Jaguar]

You'll want to provide some counter to the numbers I just posted then which seem to point to the American poor getting a pretty **** deal.

Four letters - EITC. Three more - VAT.

[kentonio]

Four letters - EITC. Three more - VAT.

You know we also have tax credits right? I'll also see your VAT and raise you a sales tax.

[Hauldren Collider]

Sales tax in the US ranges from nothing in Texas to 8.25% in California, with up to around 10% including the sales taxes of municipalities.

For most states I believe it's around 5%.

[giblets]

Sales tax in the US ranges from nothing in Texas to 8.25% in California, with up to around 10% including the sales taxes of municipalities.

For most states I believe it's around 5%.

The sales tax is not nothing in Texas. It's 6.25% plus an extra up to 2%. You must be confusing it with income tax.

[Felch]

It's nothing in Delaware. Good place to go for big ticket items.

[Ben Kenobi]

Sales tax in the US ranges from nothing in Texas

As much as that would be cool, it's six and a quarter plus two depending on your county.

http://www.tax-rates.org/texas/sales-tax-by-county

Edit - ninja'd.

[Hauldren Collider]

The sales tax is not nothing in Texas. It's 6.25% plus an extra up to 2%. You must be confusing it with income tax.

You're right, I was confused. I mixed up Delaware and Texas--I thought Delaware was the one with no income tax.

[Jaguar]

No, his statistics did. His holiday in Italy only provided anecdotal support.

Right. National account statistics at purchasing power parity are pretty well-known. There's Luxembourg and Monaco - the richest countries in the world that actually collect data. And there are oil exporters, and there's the United States. The oil exporters own a capital stock of oil that will eventually be exhausted, so they are busily replacing the oil capital stock with a real capital stock to maintain their levels of productivity.

Of these, only Norway can afford to keep its consumption expenditures on pace with the United States. It spends about a fifth of its GDP, or most of its oil export money, on its sovereign wealth fund - the replacement of oil fields with capital. This is a smart move; Nauru used to have a crazy GDP per capita from natural resources, but they spent the money, and became poor once again. Norway should continue to keep pace with the United States in personal consumption because they're investing their oil money for later instead of spending it now.

Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, and Sweden trail closely. France and the UK are far behind, and Italy is considerably behind them. It's data, available from many sources. Americans and Norweigans are the richest people on earth, and America is the only country to do it without $14,000 per capita of oil revenue.

[kentonio]

The top 20% of your population hold 87.5% of the countries wealth. No-ones denying that the rich in America are ever so, ever so rich, but that doesn't say much for the people at the bottom now does it.

[giblets]

The Dutch apparently get more per hour worked:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_hour_worked

We shouldn't count the benefits of working more hours (more money) while ignoring the opportunity costs.

[Jaguar]

The Dutch apparently get more per hour worked:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_hour_worked

We shouldn't count the benefits of working more hours (more money) while ignoring the opportunity costs.

Very true. All things considered, the Netherlands might be a better economic competitor for the United States than Norway is.

[SlowwHand]

The sales tax is not nothing in Texas. It's 6.25% plus an extra up to 2%. You must be confusing it with income tax.

Texas has no state income tax.