Behind the Scenes @ Chrysler Dealers

[Mr. Bloom]

papa: I understand and apologize for missing your very good points....and for misunderstanding the extent of your taxation

[smilingcat]

papa: I understand and apologize for missing your very good points....and for misunderstanding the extent of your taxation

But it all evens out in the end. Funny it works like that. We may not pay 62% in tax or 90% tax, but is her livelihood any better or worse than ours? Does she have less 'toys" than you or me? We may not pay the tax man but I'm sure papaver does not pay huge out of the pocket medical insuance/bill. In place of tax man, we pay the insurance company.

smilingcat

[Grog]

But it all evens out in the end. Funny it works like that. We may not pay 62% in tax or 90% tax, but is her livelihood any better or worse than ours? Does she have less 'toys" than you or me? We may not pay the tax man but I'm sure papaver does not pay huge out of the pocket medical insuance/bill. In place of tax man, we pay the insurance company.

smilingcat

Exactly what I was thinking...

And there's quite a bit less people in jail in Belgium....... (Just checked the data: 88 per 100,000 population versus 107 in Canada and 725 in the USA in 2004.) (This is worse than I thought.) (This is a secondary use of OECD data, found on Swivel: http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/show/2499139) (I'm really amazed.)

[papaver]

What do we have in return? Well lets see:

Free transportation (train/tram/bus) for children and pensioners.
Free education, exept for university students, that costs +/- 600 €/year.
If a doctor comes at my home in the middle of the night during the weekends it costs me 10 € max (we have to pay more but our almost free insurance pays most of it back within a week).
When it comes to healthcare we have a thing called 'maximum invoice', especially for people who are sick for longer periods. That's to make sure that no one becomes poor because they are sick.
Last year i've stayed in a hospital for about 9 days. I had to pay about 100€ in total.
If you have a baby, the mother gets 3 months leave (fully paid) and the father 10 days (but that will change - as from next year the parents can choose who stays at home).
If you get fired you get 90% of your salary the first year, after that you'll have a minimum (around 1250 usd)
We have a thing called 'the right to have a home', so even when you have no income (which really doesn't exist in Belgium) you still will be given a home. Of course there are still homeless people but that's mostly because of alcohol problems and people who don't want help (those people exist too).
When you're sick, the first week your salary will be fully paid by your employer, after that you'll be paid 90% of your salary by the state.
Because I'm self employed my healthcare insurance (full coverage) costs me 600 euro's (whole family) per year, as an employee it's less than 100 €/year.
And of course there is our pension, and that too is 90% of what you earned the last year you worked (but there's a maximum on that, same for when you're sick or fired).
And there's lots more. That's why I really don't mind that I have to pay that much taxes. I love the fact that when the going gets tough, you'll be looked after.

another positive thing, say when you're fired and you don't find a job within 3 months you'll get guidance (to find a new job) or you can study again (for free and you'll keep 90% of your salary or a maximum of 1900 USD, I think it is).


And still people dare to complain...

[OakLeaf]

I might mention the #1 drain on the US economy, but that would be "political"....

It might not be practical to build lots of passenger capacity to go from, say, Cheyenne, WY, to Pierre, SD, but that's not where most of the driving in the USA happens, anyhow. There's no practical or monetary reason at all why we couldn't RE-build the local and regional commuter transit systems that even small communities had 100 years ago.

[shootingstar]

It might not be practical to build lots of passenger capacity to go from, say, Cheyenne, WY, to Pierre, SD, but that's not where most of the driving in the USA happens, anyhow. There's no practical or monetary reason at all why we couldn't RE-build the local and regional commuter transit systems that even small communities had 100 years ago.

Good point, even when Canada is huge (even larger than the U.S.). Majority of people are not driving every day 100 kms. either 1 way or even a round trip.

So let's extrapolate into the future, when boomers get frail...and with our present disgust of some frail seniors who shouldn't be driving a car, how will this burgeoning population get around? AFter all, the aging population don't all have children, and not all have adult children who care about them so much, they will be around /want to chauffer around aging parents for appointments.

Many people when they age, are still quite healthy..they just aren't as alert enough to drive anymore. What is the transportation solution for this???

[papaver]

Many people when they age, are still quite healthy..they just aren't as alert enough to drive anymore. What is the transportation solution for this???

That's a difficult one indeed. I saw a bbc reportage not too long ago about elderly people driving their cars for the very last time. Some were happy to live without their cars, but there was one lady who was really bitter getting older and the fear of getting isolated was obvious. My father is a horrible chauffeur, so they do most of their shopping by bycicle. Luckily the supermarkets are not far away, but I can't see them doing this in ten years or so. We'll have to think of an alternative...