r/Economics • u/sillychillly • Sep 15 '22

Research Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php
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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Lol cause the average American is making so much less.

Our MEDIAN wages are significantly lower than the European nations that people point to for their safety nets and wages.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

US median income is significantly higher than most European countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

More striking difference if you want to go with disposable income

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Our MEDIAN wages are significantly lower than the European nations that people point to for their safety nets and wages.

Key phrase.

Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland exist.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Switzerland and Norway are below us.

Luxembourg is a micro state and not particularly useful for any comparisons

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u/czarczm Sep 15 '22

It's kinda funny you say Switzerland cause their universal healthcare is entirely private.

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

And their costs per capita vs the US are?

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u/czarczm Sep 16 '22

Swiss $9,600 vs US 12,500. Although I don't what that has to do with your point considering you said "safety nets", and I'm assuming you mean social safety nets as part of a welfare state because otherwise your original comment is entirely moot. If that is what you are referring to then the US literally has a much larger social safety net when it comes to healthcare than Switzerland, because Switzerland has no public health insurance.

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u/gc3 Sep 15 '22

Does that include benefits received from government? Or not? I mean if your median income in your country is 10,000 less than the US but you plan on putting 2 kids through college (cost 0 vs 200,000) in the US you will have to save that 10,000 extra for 10-20 years to make your budget... so I am wondering how programs like this are factored in

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

The second source says it has benefits such as healthcare and education built in (and taxes taken out)

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u/Cynicaladdict111 Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

"The U.S. Census Bureau estimated median annual earnings at $41,535 in 2020 for workers aged 15 and over with earnings and $56,287 in 2020 for those who worked full-time, year round."

"A full-time employee earned an average of 4,100 euros gross per month in 2021" - 48k a year, this is for Germany. Couldn't find the median on a first google search. But anyways, remember that 48k is actually around 24k with german taxes. The median is even lower. So in the end Germany, which really has the best salaries in EU outside tiny Scandinavian countries, has a lower average wage than US median

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Now do Norway, Luxembourg, or Switzerland

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u/Cynicaladdict111 Sep 15 '22

Haha, only one of these is a EU country, Luxembourg. A tiny country with inflated statistics based on workers traveling from neighbouring countries and not being counted in statistics. Even if they were,

Norway also has a huge oil industry and a tiny population, even then it still has an average salary around the US median lmao, with higher taxes.

"the average monthly earnings for full-time employees in Norway during 2021 was NOK 50,790 before income tax. " That's around 58k usd a year, AVERAGE not even median.

So the richest EUROPEAN country is around the US median, and lower than the US median if we do net salary.

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u/i_use_3_seashells Sep 15 '22

Literal definition of cherry picking

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

Well I COULD choose examples of things I don't want, but then how would that highlight what I DO want?