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PeakTrader said...

I recall Obama giving a speech to a large crowd of students. When he said everyone will be getting free health care until they're 26!, the crowd exploded in a tremendous cheer that a rock star would envy.

Of course, what he failed to explain was their tuition costs will skyrocket, the new health care law includes hiring 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure they pay their taxes, which will go way up, along with fees and fares, inflation will accelerate, interest rates will rise, you'll be working hard for foreigners and be slaves to the elderly, if you're lucky enough to get a job within the next few years (and it certainly won't be in health insurance).

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Benjamin said...

The French are wealthier than Americans?

And get to eat better food?
And get national health care?
And get eight weeks off?

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PeakTrader said...

Why Europeans Work Less Than Americans
Forbes
05.23.06

Europeans pay a price for their extravagant leisure. The average Frenchman produces only three-quarters as much as the average American.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the U.S. marginal rate (inclusive of payroll taxes) stayed fixed at about 40%, while the French rate rose to 59% and the Italian rate to 64%.

(Conventional wisdom) A 20% increase in your marginal tax rate is more or less the same thing as a 20% pay cut.

One trio of economists (Ed Glaeser of Harvard, Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth and Jose Scheinkman of Princeton) offers this explanation: When your wages are cut 20%, you take more vacations. But when your friends' wages are also cut 20%, you'll take even more vacations, because vacations are more fun when you've got friends to share them with.

So a 20% across-the-board tax hike, which affects both you and your friends, yields a more dramatic response than a 20% cut in your own wages.

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VangelV said...

The French are wealthier than Americans?

And get to eat better food?
And get national health care?
And get eight weeks off?

While I am a big fan of the French lifestyle I do not believe that this is entirely true. The French spend much more of their income on food than Americans and have fewer dishwashers, refrigerators, DVDs, PCs, washing machines, etc., per household than Americans do. They are less mobile because they pay more for their gasoline, automobiles, and transportation related fees.

As for the French healthcare let us note that it is a two-tier system. The poor get a basics only system that would lead to massive lawsuits within the United States. The poor get the best system that they can afford.

Let me note that the US is no longer to be considered a good representative of free market capitalism. The US military-industrial complex takes up a very large chunk of the American budget and the US government has virtually nationalized huge swaths of American business. Like France and other European nations, the US has a major problem with unfunded public pensions and social security systems. They are all about to come tumbling down like a house of cards and few Western countries will be left standing with their high standard of living intact.