Socialism...

[xerocs]

Your thoughts on the matter?

[Max Headroom]

I think it's great

[Coffee]

Being social is nice.

*debate hall*?

[Avalon]

Socializin' is the friendly thing to do...we should all do it more often.

*Waves Hello* to Xerocs, Coffee, and Max

[Max Headroom]

Bonjour

[Hyakujo's Fox]

I'm only social on drinking occasions.

[craig johnston]

rune t lives in the socialist republic of scandewegia. it's a terrible place where they have horrible things like paid maternity/paternity leave, a good health care system and decent education. they even have a high standard of living, but that's probably some kind of socialist trick. he wishes he could escape to a land of rampant free market capitalism, but those pesky socialists keep him there by force feeding him fish and vodka.
it's an outrage!
:eek:

[12"razormix]

i've had similar thoughts in the past but was always too bashful to bring it up. thank you, mr. johnston. thank you for you're courage! your a brave man.

ps: hang in their, rune!

[craig johnston]

your bashfulness is captivating ms minx.
we are all charmed etc.
:)

[12"razormix]

it's refreshing, isn't it!

[craig johnston]

it wouldn't be allowed in the maoist-leninist state of scandewegia,
that's for sure!
:(

[12"razormix]

i could start a petition for rune and you - get him out and you in! a political asylum sort of exchange.

no?

[Hyakujo's Fox]

I hear being happy and well adjusted just takes all the fun out of life.

[craig johnston]

cheers! i do like fish.
i may already be in a socialist country, i'm not exactly sure.
isn't the whole of europe socialist?
:confused:

[12"razormix]

i'm not sure either - let's ask mr. fox ( he lives far away enough to be impartial! )

[Hyakujo's Fox]

they all look the same to me

[12"razormix]

i know! dang europeans, just like the chinese.. :mad:

[craig johnston]

north koreans more like!
i'm not even allowed to shoot people.
:eek:

[RuneT]

rune t lives in the socialist republic of scandewegia. it's a terrible place where they have horrible things like paid maternity/paternity leave, a good health care system and decent education. they even have a high standard of living, but that's probably some kind of socialist trick. he wishes he could escape to a land of rampant free market capitalism, but those pesky socialists keep him there by force feeding him fish and vodka.
it's an outrage!
:eek:

Damn right! Sombody rescue me frome this communist regime! Please!

[Klynne]

rune t lives in the socialist republic of scandewegia. it's a terrible place where they have horrible things like paid maternity/paternity leave, a good health care system and decent education. they even have a high standard of living, but that's probably some kind of socialist trick. he wishes he could escape to a land of rampant free market capitalism, but those pesky socialists keep him there by force feeding him fish and vodka.
it's an outrage!
:eek:

I am sure he receives all these good things. But what does he pay in taxes? Probably a bit more of his salary then we pay here. If we want to have the same benefits, we must pay more taxes, and stop engaging in an unnecessary war.

As an aside, many, many, years ago, I lived in CA. and met many people from different countries that chose to live in the US because they did not have to pay half of their salary in taxes. It may have changed since then.

Just a thought. Not trying to attack, but, we get what we pay for.

[Frieda]

here in the NLs, we pay taxes on our salaries like this:

less than EUR 16.893: 34%
EUR 16.894 - EUR 30.357 : 41,95%
30.358 - 51.762: 42%
over 51763: 52%

then we also pay taxes for our cars, which is 20% of the value of the car when you buy a new car. doesn't work for 2nd hand cars.
now everybody that has a car pays taxes depending on the weight & size of the car. the more it fvcks up the environment, the more taxes you have to pay. these taxes range for 33 euros every 3 months to 700 euros every 3 months for cars weighing more than 5000 kg.
there's also tax on petrol or diesel or anything that your car drives on. it's 64% for unleaded and 51% for diesel.

basic health insurance costs 80 euros a month. something extra can be bought, but you have to pay for that. i pay about EUR 120 a month.

other taxes..ehh..
oh yes.

house taxes. if you're a house owner (not renting a place) then you have to pay taxes for that too. my house is worth EUR 165.000 and i pay about 800 euros a year to the nice people at city hall. mortgage interest is deductable so i receive 250 euros a month back.

what the waste, sewage, water & other environmental taxes are, i don't know exactly.. it's about 300 a year i think..

if i think of more taxes i'll post it here!

[CaRoLiNaGuRL]

being social is good... antisocial personality disorder is NOT good

[auntie aubrey]

less than EUR 16.893: 34%
EUR 16.894 - EUR 30.357 : 41,95%
30.358 - 51.762: 42%
over 51763: 52%

holy crap! and here i was complaining about the 28% tax bracket. are your taxes assessed for individuals only or are there different rates for married couples? the tax bracket shifts here if you're single versus married, filing jointly or separately... and then different ranges of your income are taxed at different rates.

better explanation than i could ever provide (http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm)

To take an example, suppose your taxable income (after deductions and exemptions) was exactly $100,000 in 2003 and your status was Married filing separately; then your tax would be calculated like this:

$ 7,000 - 0 -------- x .10: $700
28,400 - 7,000 ----- x .15: 3,210
57,325 - 28,400 ---- x .25 : 7,231
87,350 - 57,325 ---- x .28 : 8,407
100,000 - 87,350 --- x .33 : 4,175
Total --------------------- $ 23,723

eta:

i should add that the flip side of this coin is that i had a doctor's appointment last month and they did a bunch of blood work just to do a complete overall scan. i just got the bill. turns out my insurance only covered about $25 of the whole panel of tests. i'm liable for a very large chunk of bill now because my insurance provided through my employer is structured in a way to put most of the burden of illness on me. for this i pay something like $35 every 2 weeks to the insurance provider for the privilage of paying for my expenses out of pocket. and unfortunately, this crappy program is the best option i've got because adding me to my husband's employer-provided insurance would cost us in the neighborhood of $300 a month and individual non-employer provided health care is cost prohibitive.

so yes, i pay less in taxes, but now i'm wondering how on earth we'll afford to have kids, on the off chance they ever need to see a doctor. i almost think the higher taxes would be worth it if only to guarantee that adequate healthcare won't cause us to go broke.

[Frieda]

there are no different rates for married couples for salary tax.

"fiscal economical partners" such as married couples or registered partnership couples, do get different rates for house tax and community taxes such as sewage, waste or watership tax. there's a tariff for singles and a tariff for households of more than 1 person.. so you can live together with 5 people and pay the same as 2 people.


edited to add:
healthcare still is expensive here. if you have a chronic disease (like myself) you have to pay extra.. also some medication isn't covered. the basic healthcare covers about anything for a bit.. a visit to the doctor or a hospital treatment are always covered.