Study discovers Swedes are less well-off than the poorest Americans

Reuters via Haaretz ^ | 5/4/2002 | Reuters

[Texas_Longhorn]

No one is denying that the curve is not a perfect "upside-down" parabola but how could you not believe that the maximum revenue a governemnt takes in is not somewhere between 0% and 100%?

[Torie]

I should add that the WSJ ranted for years that the Laffer Curve "proved" that reducing tax rates would increase revenues. Of course there was no proof at all. The thing was written on a napkin in a bar in Hyde Park.

[Texas_Longhorn]

Simple: He was wrong about fixed rates. He was correct about the Laffer curve.

[Torie]

Yes, it clearly is. I could have told you that probably by the time I matriculated into the 6th grade.

[Texas_Longhorn]

So I am correct. The idea of a Laffer curve is correct.

[chaosagent]

Have you ever been laid off? People are not just part of a team, they are human beings with families, with feelings.

I am not adverse to facing reality but extending a little help is not an inhuman thing to do. Darwinian rules are very unforgiving, it is unlikely you would be the only to survive.

I have been laid off 3 times in the my life. The first two times I found a better job within 2 months.

After the 3rd time I started my own business, and now make much more than I ever have working for anyone else.

[WaterDragon]

Longer holidays is part of Europe's economic problems. Workers paid not to work do nothing for productivity.

[Texas_Longhorn]

It's apparant you have no clue what your talking about.

[Arioch7]

LOL! I hear you. If you give the general population access to services, they will take them for the most part. Your wife sounds like a good person that believes in the American ideal of WORKING for prosperity. Hats off to you! NOw to speak to Torie.

I care for my Grandmother and I was just putting her to bed and explaining the topic we have here.I tried telling her (Torie) that people that work a 35 hour week are more productive. She is obviously old-school but reality dictates that if I do the same job as someone else but work more hours, I GET MORE MONEY!

I only have seven employees so I cant comment on large scale economic factors. I can tell you what I do and what happens to us. The problem with your analysis is you think that the bigger an enterprise is, the more those paradigms apply.

That is untrue, huge corporations can HIDE unproductive workers and use more productive ones to fill the workload but the human instinct is still the same. Large entities tend to attract abstract analysis but they are still motivated by the same things that anyone else is motivated by.

I will put it to you this way, I pay workers who work 50 hours a week a HELL of a lot more then those that work 20. I a familiar with the "Dismal Science," but I prefer to speak of my own experience rather then economic models because that is REALITY.

[Torie]

Europe has chosen to stand back a bit from the Max Weber paradigm, and instead allocate time to smell the roses, and hear the natterings of their children, and savor the sweet perfume of their wives and mistresses.

[the bottle let me down]

The Laffer Curve is a fraud. Of course at some level it does obtain, but not at the 50% level.

The Laffer curve is not a fraud. It may be a tautology, a truism, or self-evident, but it isn't a fraud. The question merely is at what tax rate produces maximum revenue to the government over a period of time. The curve exists, and depending where the maximum is, tax cuts might result in increased revenue.

Two additional points:
(1) the rate that produces maximum government income probably is not universal, but changes for a given society based on a variety of social factors.
(2) You're wrong to focus purely on a person's marginal incentive to work. High taxes distort the economy and reduce growth in other ways--primarily be diverting investment from the most productive use to other uses that are tax favored or to consumption. Therefore, a reduced tax rate may not affect hours worked but still increase government revenue due to greater economic growth than otherwise would have occurred.

[Arioch7]

Not true. I get notices for proxy voting all the time. Of course, I hold so little of the companies I invest in that I dont get much of a voice.

Yet, I HAVE a voice in relation to the shares I purchased.

[flying Elvis]

I for one am willing to open my home to a Swedish refuge, she must have blonde hair, blues, eyes, be tall and female. lol

[Torie]

I agree with everything you said. And tax favoritism is in general bad. It is a form of government spending that in general is not conducive to producivity, but rather to economic distortion. In general, it should be resisted. Schedule A is mischievious, albeit less than before.

[Texas_Longhorn]

You even have Max's ideas wrong. He stated that the "Work Ethic" was the driving factor behind the rapidly advancing economies of the protestant areas. That's doesn't mean you don't have "time to smell the roses". It simply states that we americans don't sit on our ass surfing the web all day at work.

[Torie]

Well get to work then. Produce!

[the bottle let me down]

I mean my fund never calls me up and says Abwehr we've got a proxy fight going on over at Corporation X and you own .000001% of that company, how do you want us to vote your stake?

That's because you own shares of the fund and not the companies owned by the fund. You do get to vote on fund management, auditing, etc.

You pay the fund manager to exercise his expertise in your best interest, including voting the shares owned by the fund in the way the manager thinks is in the best interest of the fund. The manager shouldn't give a damn about how you would vote the shares if you owned them directly.

[ninenot]

Norway is so safe that Norwegians leave kids in strollers on the sidewalk while the parents enter restaurants for a meal, and no one thinks anything of it.

Well, some of US do.

Doesn't it strike you as just a bit odd that parents would take their baby to a restaurant and leave the child on a sidewalk, outside, while they munch salmon, brie, and rye bread?

Either leave the kid with old (enough) siblings, or with a responsible sitter AT HOME, or take your baby INTO the restaurant with you.

Crime or no crime, the sidewalk is NOT a place for infants and toddlers alone.

[BJClinton]

ROTFLMAO.

Thanks, I needed that. It's been a long day at the office.