Quadrant One: European Model

No no no, not that kind of model. That will have to be left for a future post. I am talking about the financial and healthcare model, the one that everyone seems to bring up when they talk about changing the American free market model. When the question about healthcare comes up somebody always lauds the European Model. They say that medical care is free. They say that prescriptions are free. They say that it should be that way here, and that no one should ever be denied medical care because they can’t afford it. I usually (and somehow I am always alone in my view) reply that it is in no way free. It is being paid for by a higher tax rate. They counter my point by saying that they are willing to pay a little more so that it may happen here. They start to name countries to try to make their point. They inevitably end up mentioning Canada. By this time they have lost their calm and are shouting. As if saying it louder will make it true or sway me to their side. I ask them if they know how much they are being taxed here in the U.S. Most of them lowball it to around twenty percent. I ask them if they would be willing to double that tax to get “free” healthcare most of them say no way. Then I tell them that the tax rate in the U.S. is at 35% and their jaw drops to the floor. And yet they keep saying that healthcare should be provided by the government. When I tell them that they would have to pay about 50% in taxes, well they begin to lose their steam. I press my points and they seem incredulous. They start to tell me how Britain’s system works. Then how the healthcare in the Netherlands is so wonderful and on and on until the come back to Canada. Just so you don’t think I am full of crap; here are some of the income tax rates for those countries.

United Kingdom 50%

Netherlands 52%

Canada 50%

Sweden 57.77%

Spain 43%

Portugal 45.88%

Greece 40%

WWW.taxrate.cc

Okay, just to be a little clearer, their system doesn’t work. It works maybe in the short term, but eventually it collapses. Here are a couple of videos that illustrate quite well what I am talking about.