Comment Re:tax burden myths (Score 1) 293
I find it also interesting to look at the link between taxation and welfare systems. To simplify: in liberal welfare regimes (US, UK) there is relatively litte taxation of the middle and (especialy) higher income groups, and little redistribution to the lower groups. In continental welfare regimes (Belgium, Germany, ...) the middle group get taxed more heavily, and there is more distribution to the lower, but the highest income group gets left alone (still more taxation then in the US&UK). In the Scandinavian model, there is the largest amount of redistribution, but the brunt is carried by the highest income groups, while the taxation of the middle group is relatively low--not a bad setup, seem from an egalitarian & economic perspective...