Yay Chairboy, that is EXACTLY what I am looking for! Gonna buy it once I make some money.
Pongo, I've looked up some numbers. I've paid MORE in tax working on holidays, vacations and the years I dinnae go to school than the state has spent on my vacation, medical bills, dental health (which for some reason isn't considered health care when you're over 18, and you thus have to pay fully for yourself).
My father is a doc. Mother got a degree in psychology. Imagine the money they'd bring in if it wasn't for the ridiculous 80% tax system - they'd have no problem paying for 10 years of my education had they lived in the US. So to the assertion that I owe the Danish government anything, I say "BS".
DK is great for slackers and those of no will to work, pretty good for carpenters, industry workers, bureaucrats, but it outright sucks moneywise for those with more education than that. For example, a doc will have earned enough money after tax as a carpenter only after he hits somewhere in his 40's - and after that due to the ridiculous taxes that are placed when you get above a certain salary, he won't earn much more.
Point in case: my father is currently getting 35 000 Dkk or something like that a month. He'll get maybe 15-17k out. A carpenter running at 25k will get maybe 13-15k out. So, there's a difference before tax of over 10k a month, but after tax it's down to 1-2k. This is just for income tax though, then there's the 25% sales tax and all the stupid 250% fees on stuff.
We in Denmark will in the coming 30 years have a situation that goes from bad to worse. During the 80's, we had very many tax payers and relatively few beneficiaries. So the state introduced a lot of welfare programs. Now, the tax payers are decreasing in numbers and the beneficiaries increasing (partly because of a stupid system that allows perfectly healthy people to retire at 60). And it will only get worse and worse for the next 30 years.
What will happen, you think? The politicians will lose their jobs if they remove the welfare goods - that much is clear from the last election. On the other hand, if they don't, they'll have to raise taxes. If they do that, we'll have a harder and harder time keeping and attracting people with decent educations, which is part of what runs the Danish economy.
Companies are taxed at a lower level (double standards are twice as good, after all) but for how long? And what happens if the tax goes up? Easy to see.
I think you ought to experience the emotion of seeing your own country going down a road that is quite bad due to the short sightedness of its population. It frustrates me. But that's what socialism does to humans - Danes now think that the way it is now is good and that is how it always should be - yet they fail to take into account changing circumstances. Socialism does NOT cope well when the variables change.
Shit, I'd be willing to live off shoestrings if I was a beneficiary - which technically I still am. We could easily save money off students. And students are the poorest people in Denmark´. Imagine what we could do with the money that is freely given to freeloaders, people who want to retire at 60, people with huge government subsidized families, immigrants who do not wish to work and so on. There's toejameloads of money to be saved there.
Only the politicians like controlling the population, so they won't. They'll increase taxes, again and again.
Next tax hike and I'm fediddleing emigrating. I'm digsusted.
