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Re: taxes



I just can't resist commenting on these tax posts. I have refrained for a
while, but can hold back no more. I hate to get too nationalistic on a
motorcycle site, but the taxes mentioned are an outrageous voilation of
property rights and represent nothing more than confiscation of property by
the government. It just doesn't take 50%+ of the income of the populace to
keep the courts open and streetlights on. Hearing all this makes me glad to
be an American. I never knew I was a wealthy person till I went to France;
there I found that grown-up professionals in their 40s and 50s in general
had about the same overall earning/purchasing power than I did as a teenager
in the USA doing part-time landscaping work and washing dishes. Something
about a family of ten sharing a compact car seating 4 seems like poverty to
me.

I don't know about other places, but in the US, most folks pay cash for
motorcycles and other toys. Its not to say that there are not a lot of very
fine places to live outside the US, but it would seem that in terms of tax
and expense burden it would be hard to do better. My condolences to all you
who pay huge value-added taxes. Just for the record, there is no value-added
tax in the US, but instead a sales tax of about 5% in some states and no tax
federally. In certain US states, there are no sales taxes, no income taxes,
nor any other taxes outside property taxes. Typically, the federal gov't
takes about 25% of our income and most states take about 5% over that, thus
leaving a total income tax burden of about 30%. To that add property tax,
sales taxes, and a few others. Most professionals can plan to lose about 1/3
of their total income to taxes.

Many of those taxes may go down soon, as in America it was figured out a
long time ago that more taxes create more demand for tax money than anything
else, while reduced or moderate taxes stimulate economic growth and at the
same time increase tax revenue as a result of simulated economy. In the US,
there has been solid economic growth for more than a decade with almost no
inflation. We have our socialists here as well and have to beat their
expansive proposals back on a regular basis. But in general, one has to
really work at it not to succeed in such an economy. Indeed there are an
increasing number of British accents heard around the office, so not
everyone is so happy with VATs, among other things. We have quite a shortage
of qualified technology professionals, so Great Britain, please send more!
:)

Happily, the end result is that individuals in general have more money than
they know what to do with even from modest jobs. Not to say all are rich,
but only that it is easy to make money and many have come upon more than
they are used to. One of the end results has been a huge surge in the number
of motorcycles on the road, particularly expensive ones.

Greg Girard


- -----Original Message-----
From: Andrew M. Eikheim <AME@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'st@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <st@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 9:57 AM
Subject: RE: taxes


>Funny - last time I mailed the list 2 months ago it was on the
>same topic:
>
>In my mind Norway hold a 1st place in this area - a 1st
>place I sure won't mind giving up!
>
>A couple of examples:
>
>Petrol pr litre in norway: £.90 ($1.50)
>(Norway's the 2nd largest oil-producer globally!)
>
>Yearly road tax: £155 (£250)
>
>VAT is 23%. Proposals exist to hike it to 25%...
>
>A new Sprint ST is £12,300 ($20,000) add to that delivery charges,
>first tank of fuel, et al!
>
>Oh, and to crown off this Horror tale: Income is taxed in bands, but reach
a
>decent wage of e.g.
>£30,000 and you're paying 44% top band tax. Survive this (and the 6-7 month
>winter) and you in the one of
>the most beautiful countries on the planet, with some of the most exciting
>roads around.
>
>
>Andrew
>96 XJ900
>99 Sprint ST (still dreaming)
>
>apprentice Viking dawg - what else! :-)
>
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