High taxes. Too high. Too senseless.

[Mike Bredsbey]

I'm preparing a special project in university for debates and I hope somebody will help me. We are supposed to debate whether or not to have high taxes and I need all the reasons I can get. It is considered that we are living in Sweden and thus we have very high taxes (some of the highest taxes in the world). It pays off through free medical care, great schools etc. I understand the basics, of course. I just need MORE reasons to prove it to the other groups.
For example, we may speak about America and gather some information about taxation here. Are American taxes very high? Who should pay more and who less?
Any weighty opinion...

 

[georgephillip]

"Among OECD countries only Mexico, Chile and Turkey had lower taxes than the United States as a percentage of GDP. In many European countries taxes exceeded 40 percent of GDP, but those countries generally provide much more extensive government services to their citizens than the United States does."
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/international.cfm

Since the mid 1970s wealthy US taxpayers have bribed government to reduce their tax burdens, individual and corporate, and compensate by reducing government services or shifting the tax burden to the middle class. As a consequence, the US has never been richer and its government is "broke."

 

[Wahbooz]

"Among OECD countries only Mexico, Chile and Turkey had lower taxes than the United States as a percentage of GDP. In many European countries taxes exceeded 40 percent of GDP, but those countries generally provide much more extensive government services to their citizens than the United States does."
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/international.cfm

Since the mid 1970s wealthy US taxpayers have bribed government to reduce their tax burdens, individual and corporate, and compensate by reducing government services or shifting the tax burden to the middle class. As a consequence, the US has never been richer and its government is "broke."

I believe your chart shows Federal taxes, but does not reflect state and local taxes. I don't know how Sweden collects taxes, whether it is strictly on the national level or if they also have local taxes.

But either way, the tax burden has been being shifted to anyone but the wealthy corporations and individuals.

 

[georgephillip]

I believe your chart shows Federal taxes, but does not reflect state and local taxes. I don't know how Sweden collects taxes, whether it is strictly on the national level or if they also have local taxes.

But either way, the tax burden has been being shifted to anyone but the wealthy corporations and individuals.

And, as David Cay Johnston explains in this 2013 interciew with Joshua Holland, that overall burden includes much more than taxes:

"Holland: And does this help explain why we have a very low tax burden overall, relative to other wealthy countries, but a lot of Americans feel that they’re being taxed to death?

"Johnston: Well, one of the reasons some Americans feel they’re being taxed to death is that if you add up our taxes, which are low compared to other modern countries, and then you add in private expenditures for things the tax system pays for in other countries — a lot of our health care costs, higher education costs, admissions and fees and tickets and licenses for a lot of things — lo and behold, we end up being a relatively high-tax country. But it depends on how you analyze the data.
http://billmoyers.com/2013/10/03/the-us-has-low-taxes-so-why-do-people-feel-ripped-off/

"And let me give you one killer figure: We spend so much money on our health care in this country — or as I prefer to think of it, sick care in this country — that for every dollar that the other 33 modern economies spend for universal coverage, we spend $2.64. And this is done using something called 'purchasing parity dollars,' so they’re truly comparable. So we spend $2.64 per person and still have almost 50 million people with no coverage and 30 million with limited coverage, and these other countries spend far less with universal coverage