But goods are MUCH cheaper in the US; practically everything is cheaper. Dutch cheese is cheaper in the US than in Holland!SteveHGraham wrote: ↑Fri Sep 28, 2018 11:02 am goods would be cheaper overseas even if our taxes were the same as everyone else's.
Only medicine +health care is more expensive on that side of the pond.
Of course we would all like zero taxes, but most of us want some government services; while there have been some experiments with other systems of government financing, tax has emerged as the least bad.
So, given that something has to be paid, the question is how much.
According to prevailing US thought on the matter, Europe should be stuck in the middle ages due the the high tax rates, with economic growth pretty much impossible.
According to European financial perception, the US should have collapsed long ago, unable to recover due to lack of government funding.
In reality, the economies seem to move in sync, with similar growth rates and recession / recovery periods.
Just to be clear, I'm not advocating either setup as "better" than the other.
As a US citizen residing in the EU, I have to file taxes in both [I'm not double taxed, but I have to do the accounting]. I know the difference better than most people.