People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness

Re:People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness by dmoy on Sunday September 10, 2017 @12:02PM (#15212763)

> European countries don’t build their welfare states by heavily taxing the rich

Idk according to my swedish coworker, there was a marginal tax rate of 70-80%++ from like 1940-1985 or something.

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Re:People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness by rayiner on Sunday September 10, 2017 @01:14PM (#15213154)

Sweden taxes everyone heavily: https://taxfoundation.org/how-scandinavian-countries-pay-the.... The top marginal rate kicks in at 1.5 times the average income. Sweden also relies heavily on the 25% VAT, which is disproportionately borne by the lower brackets.

Here is a hypothetical calculation of someone making $120k USD who is married with two kids: https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2011/12/sweden-inc.... Such a person pays roughly 50% in total taxes. In the US it would be roughly 25% (in Maryland).

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Re:People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness by ztjio on Sunday September 10, 2017 @12:29PM (#15212896)

In the US it went up to 90% in the early part of that timeframe.

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Re:People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness by AnthonyMouse on Sunday September 10, 2017 @01:26PM (#15213210)

It's important to realize that nobody really paid those rates in the US. At the time the rules for what could be claimed as a deduction were so lax that people were making $80,000 or more in deductions against $100,000 in income.

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Re:People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness by retox on Monday September 11, 2017 @07:47AM (#15217761)

I've heard this argument a lot, does anyone have any good sources to confirm it?

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