[Katya]

Of course overtaxation and socialist policies are playing a huge role in their economic diversity. Yet for years, they have attempted to bankroll these programs with the taxes of too few.
There was an article published some time last year, describing how Germany and other Euorpean nations under the newly adopted EU regulations, would have to begin a serious effort at enforcing their tax laws. The article went on to state how shocked Germans going over the border into Austria were at the questioning of how much money they were transporting.
It is in part, this new enforcement of their tax laws that is having a real effect on their economy, particularly when the former scoflaws do not have as much to spend.
A couple of years ago my cousin who lives in germany asked me if it was true that people would be prosecuted in the US for not paying their taxes accurately. She found this astounding since veryone she knew cheated a bit. I know quite a few germans (in my family, no less) that were doing a lot more than cheating "a bit".
Now that they learn the real cost of their programs, austerity will take on an entirely fresh meaning.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #17

Any country with high tax rates also has a lot of holes in its enforcement. Thus politicians always make a hay out of passing another tax increase to help little people while the tax is not collected as much as it should have if the tax law is fully followed. Everybody cheats.

If a law becomes too unreasonable, nobody really obeys it. Breaking a law become normal.