You can tax the SHIT out of people if they think they get something in return.
On your second point I wholeheartedly disagree, I’ve been in small villages in Serbia, and I know people from there very well. I also grew up 10 minutes from the Michigan boarder and have friends and family there too. From my experience, the poorest people in Serbia are less at risk of abject poverty and dying from preventable diseases than the poorest in Michigan. Sure if you look at the average salary for someone in Michigan vs someone in Serbia, Serbia is way lower, but if you actually look at quality of life factors for the bottom 10% of both those places I’d bet Serbia pulls way ahead.
Edit: and I just use Serbia as an example because it’s one of the poorest countries in Europe and I still think it’s better than a lot of US states in how it helps its poor. When you look at health, safety, and educational outcomes of middle income and rich European countries they are often far ahead of the US averages. Christ, not everything is about maximizing GDP. Look at the average lifespan of an EU citizen that’s almost 10 years longer than an American citizen.
The US is going to have more obvious poverty also because they are more accepting of immigrants from impoverished countries.
> Look at the average lifespan of an EU citizen that’s almost 10 years longer than an American citizen.
Laughably false. A 10 year difference would be ridiculous!
You can look up everything that I am talking about. The (non-European) immigrant communities in Europe are incredibly poor, but kept out of sight because European development models involve affluent city centers and pushing minorities out to the suburbs, rather than the reverse which occurs in the US.
The US certainly has problems with these sorts of things, but headlines like:
https://www.newsweek.com/french-activists-39-percent-paris-t...
or
https://www.connexionfrance.com/Archive/Clubs-accused-of-rac...
are something unimaginable in the West outside of Europe.
I’ve been there, thanks, and it’s not nearly as bad as the poor parts of Chicago or Detroit where I’ve also been. You’re completely detached from reality if you think otherwise. Have you even actually been to a poor area of a large America city? You’re also about 10x more likely to be murdered in those cities than in Paris.
> The US is going to have more obvious poverty also because they are more accepting of immigrants from impoverished countries.
Bullshit, there are basically zero first generation immigrants in Detroit. All Americans pretty much. Unless you don’t consider oppressed grandchildren of slaves as Americans?!
>> Look at the average lifespan of an EU citizen that’s almost 10 years longer than an American citizen. Laughably false. A 10 year difference would be ridiculous!
Fair, I was more thinking Italy specifically because I’m half Italian, but the average European still lives three years longer than the average America, which is pathetic considering the wealth in America.
> You can look up everything that I am talking about. The (non-European) immigrant communities in Europe are incredibly poor, but kept out of sight because European development models involve affluent city centers and pushing minorities out to the suburbs, rather than the reverse which occurs in the US.
If you’re selective about data like that, I can be selective about data too, and show you how black and brown oppressed communities in America have way worse social outcomes than the average American. What you’re saying about Europe is no different in America, it’s actually more extreme in America and more violent because of lax gun control.
> The US certainly has problems with these sorts of things, but headlines like: https://www.newsweek.com/french-activists-39-percent-paris-t...
Yeah, you’ve definitely never worked in a major midwestern city, because stuff like this still happens all the time, the racist have learned to just not be blatant about it. All you have to do is look at the C level executives at most American companies to see it. I’ve seen it first hand when I’ve tried to hire non white people in Canada and it was a battle for me. I have no idea why you think this is exclusive to France. I get that Bay Area companies are sometime more progressive, but companies in cities like Huston or Chicago, not so much, there’re still plenty of racists.
What? The Golden Visa program was created by the liberal government of Passos Coelho. It's legalized corruption (the head of a government agency was even arrested in connection with this a while back), putting upward pressure on the housing market, than the money earned by the visas themselves.
To blame this on socialism proves you don't know the history of Portugal.
Hilarious to be blaming this on socialism.
If you have a whole generation only recently retiring that wasn't educated because your state didn't fund schools, that is going to drag on your economy even to today.
Kinda just sounds like you don't know what you are talking about.
The wealthy can leave and gain more else-where and many leave. Increasing the burden. If you don't have heavy border controls, people who are less advantaged move to the country to gain from the social system. You'll also have remote workers move into cities because it is cheaper than their home region. This drives up costs in cities, but isn't enough tax revenue to offset the loss in wealthy people leaving, as it's highly focused. You'll also have people investing and buying property, which also drives up the costs.
At the end of the day, if you want to improve life, you have to focus on
(a) strict immigration policies (reducing pressure from immigrants)
(b) strict import controls (raising internal wages)
(c) reduce social system, focus on citizens and potentially reduce general services
(d) reduce taxes on income, land and sales
(e) increase import taxes and potentially tax on foreigners
If you do the above, it'll reduce the burden on the individuals and protect & improve the internal labor market.