AUTOREFRESH 
How Europe got this way, in one sentence
By Jamie Coleman || February 13, 2012 at 20:46 GMT
|| 13 comments || Add comment
Ever wonder why Europe is such a nightmare. Read no further than this:
“Everything is taxed – when you buy an apartment it’s taxed, when you buy a kilo of tomatoes it’s taxed, when you buy a television, it’s taxed. So why shouldn’t buying a share in a company be taxed?”
And the US is headed down the same path. Scary.
Reminds me of the old Regan quote on big government: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidies it. “
They have to tax everything as they need to pay for all the benefits that citizens get. Problem with countries like Greece was that they weren’t collecting enough tax to pay for all the amazing benefits that they get.
So wait, how did it get this way then?
Too much statism.
Oh it’s even more screwed up here at least they have budgets. Bernanke is trying to get people to take risks and then Obama is going to tax it when you finally take the leap
“the levy was a “first step” towards the more comprehensive European tax.”
Slowly slowly taxy monkey.
The problem with Greece is there widespread corruption. In addition, the greeks are lazy, they are not working enough!
With all due respect, attributing Europe’s problems solely to high taxation is a gross over simplification. It fails to explain why despite high taxation Germany is such an economic power or why the Netherlands, where I have lived since 1995, still retains its Triple A status. The variables which explain each European country’s relative economic successor failure are much too complicated for me to explore here but it is not surprising that this statement would be taken at face value by those are influenced by propaganda that taxing the richest one per cent will somehow destroy economic growth. There is a vast difference between ideology and fact.
Gross simplification? Moi?
…and if you need an emergency medical help, it’s there for you at no cost. Now in the US……
I am simply saying that the “one sentence” attributing “how Europe got this way” to taxation over simplifies because it fails to take into account many other variables which have an impact on economic success/failure and relative growth/decline.
This is why I cited Germany and the Netherlands as examples. Rates of taxation are very high yet they do not have Greece, Portugal et al problems. It’s much more complicated than tax rates.
Here’s a good one from Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlgTwp93E48
Governments will continue to tax its people to death until the people get fed up and revolt. American history is going to repeat itself in America, and Europe may very well be next!
Its not the taxes, its the collections. Greece’s problem is that they don’t collect enough of their taxes and a massive black market exists. A little while back the WSJ (wished I save the link somewhere) published an article about how the country would be self sustaining if it would crack down on tax evaders.