Disqus - Latest Comments for Lau

Re: I am rice

Lau — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:36:27 -0000

Interesting.

Check out the 3rd paragraph in the 3rd column. "Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles".

Did Ted Stevens write this?

Re: Almost Nothing Rotten in Denmark

Lau — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:51:11 -0000

The majority of the voters live of off income from the taxes. The high taxes are popular among those people. On the other hand the taxes are not popular among the minority working in the private sector, who pay a 63% marginal tax on income above ~$59k USD.

"And the Danes seem to like it that way." Don't lump everyone together please. The people living off of the back of the privately employed tax payers might like it that way, yes.

The sales tax is 25%. On cars there is an additional 160%-180% tax. There are also additional taxes on tea, coffee, candy, soda, alcohol, energy, some kinds of insurances and more.

With these taxes it is expensive to do things like eating out. It's less common than in the US from my experience.

GDP per capita might be high, but the state takes all the money away from you. And the GDP number is misleading since it is assumed that state/public "production" value is equal to the cost.

You can't compare "Self-reported life satisfaction" across cultures. And it just says that people say that they are satisfied, not that they are. Probably because they think that they should be.

As you mention, growth is stagnating. Forget Gini coefficients. People are more equally poor - yay. I want to leave Denmark soon.

Re: Almost Nothing Rotten in Denmark

Lau — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:04:52 -0000

Jed, I'm not saying it's better to eat out. You can afford it more easily in the US. I think the reason people out less in Denmark is because of taxes.

-It is so expensive(partly due to taxes).
-People work less because of the high marginal taxes.
-People don't have a lot of money left after taxes.

And I don't want the government to tax people to make them healthy - I don't think that would work anyway.

"The continued viability of countries like Denmark depends on the success of countries like the U.S."

Even though the private sector in Denmark is hampered by taxes, there is still some production going on, it's just not as much as it could be.

So for instance the Danish company Maersk is the largest container shipping company in the world. They also produce oil. Denmark as a country is a net exporter of oil. AFAIK the US is a net importer - so when it comes to shipping or oil you could say that the US "depends on the success of countries like Denmark". And that's not a bad thing - it's the case for virtually everyone. We all depend on trade.