Music Banter - View Single Post - The 'Big Government' thread: US vs EU, and whether either (or both) are doomed

Lilja · 01-21-2013, 03:03 AM

I do not think you can really compare the US to the EU as you are comparing one government to a system of many. And in that group of many IE EU there are some governments that worked well and some that did not work as well. Take Greece for example..this is a country where very few people pay their taxes, where public-sector jobs are secured through family ties and where contracts for work, public or private, are rarely signed without someone in a position of power asking for a backhander. And then they believed that by going into a single currency, this would somehow make things better?

Than you have a country like Sweden. I am Swedish and yes we do pay high taxes. But I do not really care about that in so much that I know I will get my taxes back in the forms of subsidized preschools, free school, free university, a universal health system, public transport, etc. I do not have to worry about unemployment thanks to my union and the money I pay to them every month. So the one benifits the many and many think like this which benifits the country as a whole. I know there are *****s in the system but there are *****s in every system.0

So there you have two different government systems and two different ways people of a country think..that makes sense because we are from two very different countries. Therefore it is hard to compare the EU to the US.

I do not think it really comes down to the specific governments as it is to the people that elect them (unless you are in a dictatorship and then of course it does not really matter). But I do not think that the US will really improve until its people start accepting the fact that if they want a system that includes universal health care, better public transport, social security..you are going to have to pay for it. That means raising your individual federal taxes much higher than what you currently pay. And if this causes an uprising and people protest that they cannot possibly do this than there is no point even talking about universal health care or higher welfare situations for the individual because it is not going to happan.

01-21-2013, 03:03 AM	#27 (permalink)
Lilja Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 521	I do not think you can really compare the US to the EU as you are comparing one government to a system of many. And in that group of many IE EU there are some governments that worked well and some that did not work as well. Take Greece for example..this is a country where very few people pay their taxes, where public-sector jobs are secured through family ties and where contracts for work, public or private, are rarely signed without someone in a position of power asking for a backhander. And then they believed that by going into a single currency, this would somehow make things better? Than you have a country like Sweden. I am Swedish and yes we do pay high taxes. But I do not really care about that in so much that I know I will get my taxes back in the forms of subsidized preschools, free school, free university, a universal health system, public transport, etc. I do not have to worry about unemployment thanks to my union and the money I pay to them every month. So the one benifits the many and many think like this which benifits the country as a whole. I know there are ***s in the system but there are ***s in every system.0 So there you have two different government systems and two different ways people of a country think..that makes sense because we are from two very different countries. Therefore it is hard to compare the EU to the US. I do not think it really comes down to the specific governments as it is to the people that elect them (unless you are in a dictatorship and then of course it does not really matter). But I do not think that the US will really improve until its people start accepting the fact that if they want a system that includes universal health care, better public transport, social security..you are going to have to pay for it. That means raising your individual federal taxes much higher than what you currently pay. And if this causes an uprising and people protest that they cannot possibly do this than there is no point even talking about universal health care or higher welfare situations for the individual because it is not going to happan.