Report: Most Heavily Taxed Nations Are the Happiest

MarketWatch:

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says people in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands are the most content with their lives. The three ranked first, second and third, respectively, in the OECD's rankings of "life satisfaction," or happiness.

There are myriad reasons, of course, for happiness: health, welfare, prosperity, leisure time, strong family, social connections and so on. But there is another common denominator among this group of happy people: taxes.

Northern Europeans pay some of the highest taxes in the world. Danes pay about two-thirds of their income in taxes.

Read the whole story: MarketWatch

Comments

[JDSalinger12]

I will have to think about this article for awhile. It seems other factors may be at play here. I certainly think the cost of living and the demand for higher level of living is higher in these countries. This is actually a very thought provoking piece.

Best,
Brian Jones
http://www.braintraininggames.net/Brain-Training-Games/Brain-Training-Video-Games.html

[JScott]

You would think that in this country there would be a very intelligent discussion of this---why can't the US do better and is our way always the best way but it seems like too many folks think yup we're the best and ours is the best way for other coutnes to follow---yeah right. Sadly some folks don't get it when other countries think 'no we don't want to follow the US model, Scandinavia is better.
Maybe some in the US need to GET A CLUE!!!!!

[fallout4U]

UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil

[fallout4U]

Most of these countries are living of of oil revenues from the north sea.

[confidance government]

Ergo, the more one is taxed the happier he becomes.

Damn, I never stopped to think about how happy paying taxes made me feel. It all is spent in a way that I more or less agree with, although I do wish we would invade Iran so a larger percentage could be spent on defense and bailout more industries to support the economy. Ironically, I am even paying for the same law enforcement that will lock me up for indulging in some alternative intoxication.

In fact, screw this. At some point you expect to get something out of your state for the money that you are throwing at it. I would suggest that the reason these highly taxed societies are happier is not because of their taxes, but because of what those tax taxes are spent on. Until I can inhale what I want, not watch my money be redistributed to banks or used to fight wars, quite frankly I am not going to give them anymore to waste.

[Yermammy]

I wouldn't mind to pay higher taxes to destroy companies that only exist to make war toys and oil for profit. How do you expect defense industries survive without perpetual war? You can't, as their only reason for existing is to supply weapons. We had industry in WWII convert over to making guns, tanks, pursuit and bomber airplanes and then reverted back to their normal manufacture after the war. ALL defense industry should either be absorbed by some company that can sustain itself in times of peace, start making things (like alternative energy products) or be abolished all together. It's the same with crack dealers. Reduce the supply, reduce the demand.
Oh, and another no-brainer, STOP selling arms to other countries and then wonder why THEY'RE SO WELL ARMED WHEN WE START WARS WITH THEM... no, duh. Nationalize oil and health care. They're too important to be in the hands of corrupt profiteers. Period.

[JScott]

Apparently you glossed over the part where China UK France etc. ranked lower than the US.
I think you can't exactly equate high taxes with happiness BUT there is a very high correlation.

[confidance government]

Ironic, I am living and working in France, and I just filed my tax returns. Expensive, but at least I am getting decent health insurance out of it. I am just suggesting that there is a higher correlation between competent spending of tax revenues and happiness, than there is between the rate of taxation and hapiness.

[KarateKid]

All you US bashing Euros, don't forget one thing: if it wasn't for the US, you'd all be singing Deutschland Uber Alles every morning. You all ought to S. T. F. U.

[netzwerg]

We live in the 21st century, not in the 1940s anymore. Ive been living in Germany for 10 years now and will never return to the US anymore for obvious reasons (way better living, etc).

Ignorance is killing the US faster and faster, no wonder why I see more and more americans emgrating to good old Europe these days, and those are the smart (I know, Reps dont like those people..) guys...

[stunsitfel]

Lived there for three years.....pray you don't get sick.

[jordan3189]

You know that 1940's argument never works on you liberals when the union viability questions come up.

[AtheistUS]

I live in US and hope the country will be changing now. The religious lunatics is not majority anymore.

[KarateKid]

The beer is great. The schnitzels are good. The people suck. Everything is very expensive. Foreigners are isolated. And, there is plenty of ignorance in Germany, too.

[OneTop]

Did you not take history during your home schooling time ? Try reading a few books instead of relying on Saturday morning cartoons for historical facts.

[KarateKid]

Oh, and what facts are you speaking of? You a Holocause denier?

[AtheistUS]

Have you studies history? Can you make a more clear statement about contribution of US into WWII? Hollywood movies are not counted. Please.

[KarateKid]

Yes, I "studies" history. LMFAO

[Yermammy]

That would be better than "Aichy Breaky Heart".

[confidance government]

The idea that the Germans would have conquered the US after failing to even cross the English Channel is ridiculous. Yes, it "could" have happened, but we probably could have not even touched Germany, and the Russians and English would have eventually wore them down.

Also, it was the Japanese that got us into that War (or rather our embargo on the Japanese that left them with the choice of loosing the war in Manchuria or securing new supplies of raw materials from the Dutch East indies). We were technically at War with Germany since 1940, (when you start escorting British convies full of war material, that is definitely not neutrality). In my opinion, our government did their best to push us into war by provoking Germany and Japan to take people's minds of the lingering effects of the Great Depression.

As far as the Holocaust goes, it was never our motivation for getting involved in the War, it was just a real sweet motivation for justifying our involvement.

[shoegazing]

How about some other random statistics (all from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index):
HDI (2006):
1 Iceland 0.968 11 France 0.955 21 United Kingdom
2 Norway 0.968 12 Finland 0.954
3 Canada 0.967 13 Denmark 0.952
4 Australia 0.951 14 Austria 0.951
5 Ireland 0.960 15 United States 0.950
6 Netherlands 0.958 16 Spain 0.949
7 Sweden 0.958 17 Belgium 0.948
8 Japan 0.956 18 Greece 0.947
9 Luxembourg 0.956 19 Italy
10 Switzerland 0.955 20 New Zealand

Worldwide Corruption Perceptions ranking of countries (2008):
1 Denmark 9.3
1 New Zealand 9.3
1 Sweden 9.3
4 Singapore 9.2
5 Finland 9.0
5 Switzerland 9.0
7 Iceland 8.9
7 Netherlands 8.9
9 Australia 8.7
9 Canada 8.7
11 Luxembourg 8.3
12 Austria 8.1
12 Hong Kong 8.1
14 Germany 7.9
14 Norway 7.9
16 Republic of Ireland 7.7
16 United Kingdom 7.7
18 Belgium 7.3
18 Japan 7.3
18 United States (American territory) 7.3

Top 20 Countries in gender gap index 2008 (numbers are rounded):
1.Norway 82%
2.Finland 82%
3.Sweden 81%
4.Iceland 80%
5.New Zealand 79%
6.Philippines 76%
7.Denmark 75%
8.Ireland 75%
9.Netherlands 74%
10.Latvia 74%

[RainDance33]

To make it clear on the corruption perception rankings that those at the top of the list are the least corrupt, with the perception of corruption increasing as you go down the list.

[leonel]

RICH PEOPLE IN THE US ARE NOT PAYING ENOUGH TAXES AND IT IS MAKING EVERYBODY MISERABLE INCLUDING THEM. WE NEED TO MAKE RICH PEOPLE HAPPY AND RAISE THEIR TAXES.

Ahead, maybe after a year or so, the big deficit will have to be faced and taxes are biggest way to help. Aside from growing economy, streamlining government, and inflation. They will all have to be used. During Great Depression, taxes were raised on rich very high because they were the only ones who had any resources left. They hated Roosevelt, called him a traitor to his class. Democrats will have to slowly bring up the topic again. It seems unavoidable. Democrats need to build up a surplus of "political capital" in order to do so. Republicans will be ready with big pushback, this can be a big line of defense for them. If they lose, and country gets happier like some European countries, Republicans may have to rename their party, like "Bible Belt Conservative Party."

[TxAggie]

How do you define "rich" people? Are you included?

[confidance government]

I assume that he defines "rich" the way everyone does; "everyone that has more than me is rich"

[noaxe397]

Another important reason to tax the rich heavily is that it acts like a shock absorber on the country's financial system. We did not have speculative bubbles when taxes on rich were highest and did when Republicans insisted we needed to lower taxes on rich.

What is definition of rich. It's combination of things. One is how your income is classified. Hedge fund managers' salaries are called management fees and taxed at only 15%. Another is what is your after tax income. The more you have left over the more you have to manipulate the economy with arcane and esoteric financial instruments that do nothing productive for the economy but they create a churninig that makes you a lot of money. You are rich if you can risk YOUR money and MY money with your investment schemes even though I don't want you to do so.

Warren Buffet's total federal tax burden was 17%, almost half that of his secretary. He pointed this out and he knows it's wrong and has said so.

[SgtLucifer]

Article --- "....well, we are never really quite sure of what we get in return for paying them, other than the world's biggest military".

------ ... well, we need the world's biggest military to protect our crummy way of life.

[JScott]

well, we are never really quite sure of what we get in return for paying them....

Mostly because politicians promise programs for the electorate and don't design policies
on how to pay for them.

I dunno what they do in the happier countries (someone let us know how the do it) but elected politicians in this country ADAMANTLY REFUSE to inform the electorate of the connections between TAXES PAYED and SERVICES RECEIVED.

[marijam]

I'm not surprised. Life can be very hard. Having some things taken care of for you makes it less hard. Less worries, less anxiety, less stress. Here in the states, somehow we've equated money with freedom. The more money you have, the freer you are.

[noaxe397]

Something analogous to this columnist's observations is that here in the US the so-called blue states are, in general the highest taxed and regulated (CA, NY, MA, IL) and the so-called red states the lowest taxed and regulated (AK, AL, La, MS) Yet social pathologies are highest and quality of life lowest in red states and, respectively, lowest and highest in blue states.

Quick example: State with lowest divorce rate? Gay lovin' Taxachusettes, home to Ted Kennedy.
State with highest divorce rate? Texas, home to family values Bush league.

[marijam]

I lived in Kansas for 44 years, then I moved to Seattle for three years. It was wonderful. Now, I'm in a purple state and its annoying.

[jake1492]

The article says that the US has the 15th highest per capita income. When considering the phony income associated with credit bubble is included in that figure, the real per capita income is significantly lower.

But the big effect is income inequality. If median income (effectively meaning what most people earn) is compared instead of per capita, then the US fares far worse even than the worse than 15th place implied by the loss of phony bubble income. Sadly the game playing is only that.... and doesn't add up to an affluent society, just a bunch of rich people, much of it ilgotten.

[wyldthings]

Denmark has a population of 5.4 million 94% white, Finland has 5.3 million. I think it's very easy to make 10 million people happy as long as your white. We on the other hand came in tenth and we have 300 million citizens of such diversity that I'll take the good old U.S.A. Go check out the population make up of these countries then praise them.

[TxAggie]

I am happy that the small socialist countries are happy good for them. They are so largely because of the generosity of the United States, there was that little contribution we made to Europe call WWI II where we crushed Hitler, then paid for the reconstruction of the continent. These small countries do not have to have large armies, they do not have to worry about the russians, the chinese and worldwide terriorism becase we do it for them, leaving them free to take their long vacation, work less and bitch about the ugly Americans. Personally, my view is we live in the best country on the planet in spite of our current rush to socialism.

[rabiddog6708]

America won WWII all by themselves, did they? Keep telling yourself that, t00/.

[AtheistUS]

Proud ignorance? First, you do not know what a socialist country is. Forget about "small socialist countries" - that is random set of words, not related here.

"WWI II where we crushed Hitler" - we contributed well, but major forces of Germany were crushed by Russia.

"they do not have to worry about the russians, the chinese and worldwide terriorism" - I think the best for us is not to boast about Bush's "war against terrorism" or "terriorism" as you call it, we made enough trouble with Iraq. Actually, people across the globe worry as much or more about US than about Russia or China. By some reviews we take place (as threat to peace) somewhere alongside with Iran.

[Oonagh]

I do not know where you get you facts but I would suggest you try somewhere else as you have got it all wrong.

[SiberianRat]

Wow, history and world affairs appears to be taught differently in Texas.

[JScott]

I think Finland paid off all it's debts to the US.

[epenstien]

My wife and I make a measly $100,000 a year.We started like everyone else making $20,000 ten years ago.We do our own investing,and shape our future through fiscal planning.If our taxes were lower,I would be rich already.How could paying more taxes make us happier

[AtheistUS]

On the other hand, I make much more, but would not mind to pay more TAX. And I am certainly for universal health care. And I'm quite sure I'm already "happier".

May be you are missing something?

[epenstien]

No im not.I dont want taxes I want money.We are perfectly happy.If your a Liberal I doubt your happy.Please explain in detail (no liberal banter) how universal will save us money

[epenstien]

Liberal policy has Bankrupt CA and NY.I bet you cant tell us how rent control helps or hurts the economy.Since you make so much money ,I'm sure economics are a specialty of yours

[rabiddog6708]

Poor baby. Worship the dollar and F off.

[Shaddup]

What's the matter, poblicito? Not enough green for ya then? Something's fishy there with ya, because my wife and I live on roughly 1/3 of what you gross, and we have general peace and happiness, outside of the usual life perturbations. What bothers me most about what you write here, is that you make more than we do, but claim that you aren't happy because you pay so much in taxes. Bet we pay almost as much as you do, after you write off your deductions and such. Maybe you should learn to live with less. Maybe put off a vacation, or read a book like wife and I do. It's not so bad, not being beholden to our money or possessions. In fact, I would argue we're freer.

[SiberianRat]

"measly 100,000 a year" - First of all, your taxes aren't going up; and secondly, as a teacher, your "measly" income would be a dream. I think your post totally illustrates the problem in that you don't care how the country does, just you and your wife.

[confidance government]

...............
SiberianRat is apparently jealous of people that make more than him and thinks that people that make more than him, question the value of the Stimulus Plan, and realize that eventually taxes will have to rise for everyone to pay for it, don't love America.
.

[mamacat]

I think that many Western European countries, and Scandinavia in particular, are wonderful places to live. The U.S. is going through a crisis of identity, perhaps. Our dedication to inept and unwise military adventures is hurting our economy and our standard of living, and actually weakening our total military preparedness.