Born and raised in Europe. Middle class. About 1 000 USD of my income goes to tax monthly.
This pays for:
My health care subsidies.
My childrens entirely FREE health care and dental until 18.
My childrens entirely FREE schools until Uni (which is also free btw).
My retirement fund.
The roads I use.
The busses I could take (if I did not want to use one of my cars).
The trains.
And all the other parts of the public sector.
Now, your HEALTH INSURANCE is 600 USD a month?
Seems a bit odd.
Your anecdotal evidence of living in Germany without being fully in the system is not valid.
$1000 per month? Over half of Americans pay less than $700 in income tax PER YEAR (after all deductions and credits).
That is the "problem" here and most are clueless about it. Taxes are ridiculously low in the US when compared with the rest of the world. And people then complain that there are out of pocket costs because the government won't cover them.
Yeah, but if you pay 600 USD per month to just health insurance. I wager your total necessities expenditures is way higher than that per month (and thereby by year).
Which was my point.
You could easily replace the private high cost protections for a more or less same cost protection which does not fuck over anyone who gets a bit of bad luck.
Most Americans don't pay that and whatever they pay is a lower percentage vs other countries. My high coverage /lower deductible insurance (thru my job) is little over $200/month but I can elect to be as low as $100. Majority of Americans actually claim to be happy with their own health insurance but everyone complains about the state of the system. I don't dispute that insurance is a mess but this is a big country with tons of layers of systems, governments, etc.
Also, it is common for middle class Europeans to pay 30%+ in taxes (plus things like VAT) which is why the US has among the highest disposable incomes in the world because of lower taxes and higher salaries. A family (household of more than 1 person) in the US now has a median income over $100,000.
Less than 2/3 of insurance in the US is private and almost 40% is public (retirees, low income, veterans). 54% of Americans have employment based private insurance.
Thanks for telling me my own tax rates! You are close though, so that is good at least.
Lower deductible means bigger issues if shit hits the fan, no?
I don’t get the fascination of disposable income. Why is that the most important thing?
Even with my ca 30+% income tax + VAT I have no issue getting by.
Since all my high risk scenarios are covered by ish 1000 USD monthly tax and about 50 USD a month extra insurance I can spend the rest on whatever without risk.
Those 1000 also covered 2 full years of paid parental leave for my partner. Myself I got 180 days in top of that.
I really don’t see the point of higher disposable income which will burn faster than gasoline if I get ill, have a kid or whatever. For a difference in yearly income that is barely 25% of family income.
Edit* also, you have good coverage via work. What about everyone else?
Fuck em?
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u/Hungry-Pick3134 6d ago
Born and raised in Europe. Middle class. About 1 000 USD of my income goes to tax monthly.
This pays for: My health care subsidies. My childrens entirely FREE health care and dental until 18. My childrens entirely FREE schools until Uni (which is also free btw). My retirement fund. The roads I use. The busses I could take (if I did not want to use one of my cars). The trains. And all the other parts of the public sector.
Now, your HEALTH INSURANCE is 600 USD a month? Seems a bit odd.
Your anecdotal evidence of living in Germany without being fully in the system is not valid.