Quote:
Originally Posted by dogzilla
No. Most of the countries on that list are in Europe. Considering the history of Europe over the last 2000 years I wouldn't use Europe as a model of success for anything. I certainly would not view the socialist state model in Europe as a success at all.
The only country on that list that I've seen as a credible economic competitor to the US in the last 40 years is Japan, and Japan's tax rates are lower than US tax rates.
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Seriously? Japan's problems with national debt are far worse than that of the U.S.
Japan's debt is 192% of GDP (2009), whereas the U.S. national debt is sitting at approximately 91% (2010).
The IMF is expecting Japan's debt to hit 250% of GDP by 2015. The IMF's proposed solution for Japan? Increase their consumption tax by 5%.
Just to put that into perspective for you, that would be the equivalent of a U.S. public debt of $25.6 trillion instead of $13.3 trillion. So using GDP as a metric, for the U.S. to be in as bad shape as Japan, the national debt
would have to nearly double.
Japan's hardly a model to follow.
GDP vs National Debt by Country
And why would you use 2,000 years of European history to consider a contemporary economic environment? And which socialist model are you talking about?