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bigredfish

bigredfish

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CCTVCam said:
You are mistaken. Most pay less income tax. We pay fixed rates that include everything including social security:


BandTaxable incomeTax rate
Personal AllowanceUp to £12,5000%
Basic rate£12,501 to £50,00020%
Higher rate£50,001 to £150,00040%
Additional rateover £150,00045%
So, the 1st £12,500 is free and untaxed.



The next £50,000 is taxed at 20% (you still get the free £12,500 in addition to that)

Between £50,001 and £150,000 is taxed at 40% (you still get the 1st £12,500 free and the 1st £50,000 after that at 20%)

Over £150,000 is taxed at 45% (however, as before you get the 1st £12,500 free, the 1st £50,000 after that at 20% and the £100,000 between the £50k and £150k at 45%)


Examples:

Someone on £12,500 pa will pay no tax at all

Someone on £30,000 pa will pay tax at 20% on £17,500 only (£30k-12,500)

Someone on £62,500 pa will pay 20% tax on £50K only.

For that you get totally free Health Care - free A&E, free ambulances, free operations (ALL except cosmetic unless as a result of disfigurement or accident in which case free), free cancer care and drugs, free MRI / CT Scans / Xrays, free GP's, free consultants, free hospital stays, free mid wives, all with unlimited access, free physio, free health care visitors, free innoculations, subsidised Dental Care, prescriptions at a fixed cost irespective of the cost of the drug eg £10,000 per month you still pay a fixed £9.15 charge, subsidised or free eye care / tests / glasses for those on low income or with certain diseases in the family that make them prone to eye disease eg glaucoma, a comprehensive benefits system for unemployed or disabled people, free care homes for the elderly although it is means tested and those with savings will have to pay until the savings are exhausted down to I think £6K.

In the US you also pay additional income tax to your local municipality at between 1-10% of your income. In the UK we pay on house value and it's a fixed amount on average around £100 per month for a house of average value but that gives you free refuse collection, access to refuse dumps, free fire, police, libraries, education, comprehensive social care, maintenance of street furniture, trees, verges, roads, pavements, council housing for the poor (subsidised with cheap rents and free maintenance / decoration), free grafitti removal, free school meals for low income children, housing benefit, council tax benfit for those on low incomes, etc.

To give you an idea of Council services, a council website is here listing theirs: Welcome to Wiltshire Council - Wiltshire Council

Still think the US is system is better? Apart from your sales tax, our income tax is 5% cheaper for most low ot moderate income levels, with £12,500 free and all those benefits.
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You make too many bad assumptions.

We too have a sliding scale based on income. My mother for example pays 0% as she makes under the minimum $18-22k or so.

I pay $1200 per year in property tax.

Other than free health care, we have all the same services you listed with similar breaks for lower incomes.

We pay no other local city tax nor state income tax in Florida. At 100k my taxes would be 40% according to you. I pay 23% now. I pay 6.2% social security tax and our sales tax is 1/3 yours.

Another interesting data point:
The Average Household income in the US was $68,400 last year
Avg Houshold income UK was about $35K pounds or $48,000


Still think it’s a better system? Yes
 
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TonyR

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tigerwillow1

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CCTVCam said:
For a start, take a look at Britains Health Care System.
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I'm going to respond to this one issue. Back when I was 20-ish, not recently, I knew what was wrong with the healthcare system in the US, and how to fix it. What I saw was the many different insurance companies having different forms, coverages, and procedures. What an inefficient waste! The obvious solution was for the federal government to take over the insurance part of the system to save the cost of all the inefficiencies. I wish now that we could go back to those days of reasonable insurance premiums and medical costs. Little did I know how much worse the cure was than the disease! One major step backward was taking the patient out of the payment for services loop. In the name of helping people, the providers switched to direct billing the insurance companies. The patients didn't have to see what things cost any more. Then in the name of helping people, more procedures were covered, deductibles were reduced or went away, and co payments were reduced or eliminated. Now the patient didn't have to care about what anything cost, or of over-using the system. Groups with power such as labor unions won what was essentially free medical care. Costs didn't matter any more and it opened up the door for all of the price gouging and collusion in the system today. It was I think a General Motors executive that once said they were a health insurance company that built cars on the side. Then Obamacare came along. No question there were major problems in the medical system that needed fixing. Did the democrats do what was best for the citizenry? No, they used fixing the obvious problems as a cover for a major power grab. Not claiming to be a scholar on it, I believe that far less than half of the 906 pages of the actual law have anything whatsoever to do with health care. Quite a lot of it tinkered with the tax code, and it took over the student loan industry, as two examples.

The point I'm trying to make is that when something is turned over to the government, it eventually gets used to wield power, enrich the politicians and their friends, and redistribute wealth. Yes, there's a parallel with capitalism. Just look at how today the common people are being lorded over by facebook, amazon, twitter, etc. Be it government or a large corporation, they dangle the carrot for something, people fall for it, give them power, and become dependent. Then they get crushed by the monster they helped create. In my old age wisdom, I don't think government run health care is something to brag about, only because like most things government, it gets misused.
 
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tigerwillow1

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BORIStheBLADE said:
You get into arguments with friends you've known for 20+ years and might even end a friendship over the soap opera bull shit listed above...
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I have a brainless liberal Obama-loving neighbor who can't seem to communicate with me about anything without including a put-down of Trump of celebration of Biden. I'm having a hard time restraining myself.
 
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