187sks

I already pay in excess of 25% in direct taxes. It would be nice if corporations and the very wealthy did the same. Add the fact that you have to have medical insurance of up to 8% of your total household income or pay a penalty and things get really out of hand. Another nearly 10% goes to sales tax and/or state income tax in most places. In some cases your total tax burden can be in excess of 50% here in the US. A few years ago I went through my financial records and found that 42% of my income went directly to one easily traceable tax or another.



Corporate Tax Rates Fact Sheet



In 1952 corporations paid 32% of income tax revenue collected by the US government. In 2013 that was down to 10%.



Average effective tax rate of corporations in the US (what they actually pay) is 19.4%.



Sort by individual max tax rate for interesting comparisons



Compare benefits provided by the countries with similar tax rates and that will show how middle class Americans are the real losers in our system. Very few benefits to show for the high tax rate.



So where do these taxes go?



2014 Tax Receipt



Health care is the largest recipient of tax dollars and if we ever decided to eliminate our idiotic system we could easily cut over 50% of that expense while offering free healthcare to everyone without increasing taxes. This will require changing the entire healthcare model in the US and truly socializing medicine but the benefits are worth it. Here is the way to do this:



1. The government buys or builds medical centers and staffs them with doctors and other medical personnel.

2. All services at these facilities are free of charge. The doctors are paid a wage the same way rocket scientists at NASA get their paycheck.

3. Malpractice lawsuits will be limited to a maximum of the average US lifetime income. Doctors and other medical workers will be barred from practicing for the public if malpractice cases are excessive.

4. If you think this is subpar doctors can still practice medicine for profit and you can still choose to buy insurance if you like.



It will destroy the insurance industry, but the hell with those guys. Destroying the health and pocketbooks of the citizens is not worth saving a deeply flawed industry. Obamacare just amplified the problem.



Defense spending is a close second to health care and that needs dialed back significantly. It should never exceed double the next closest competitor. We are spending between 3 and 5 times as much as our closest competition, China. We spend more than the following 9 countries combined. That's too much we need to dial that back hardcore.

Tibbi

But under Bernie's plan they'll take the money from rich old mean guys and give it back to the innocent victims of corporate greed. So those without don't have to give up their hardly earned cash, and those who work 24/7/365 and have to run entire world wide mega-companies will be forced to give people with no ambition to exceed all the cable TV, high speed internet, smart phone data plans, lavish vacations and fast cars that they don't deserve.



Because when you're mentally ten years old that's how socialism works.

Stocker

...and then you run out of other peoples' money.



not that any minds will be changed but:



https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/...oIN/story.html



http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA555...alth_Care.html

187sks

From your second link:

"In 2004, Sweden spent about 9.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, which is slightly above the average for nations that belong to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development."



Health Care spending as percent of GDP



By 2013 that's risen to 9.7% of Sweden's GDP. So how are we doing in the US? We are spending almost double that, 17.1%. That's despite the fact that over 10% of the population is uninsured. We're spending basically twice as much and not even covering everyone. It's an enormous waste of money because our system is so inefficient. Is Sweden's system perfect? absolutely not. With the same amount of money that we're currently spending directed more intelligently we could have an amazing system. If we split the difference we save money and still cover everyone well.



The ONLY way to fix our system is to completely revamp it. I know I would rather do that than continue to force people into a broken system with yearly health insurance premium increases running in the range of 5% per year above increases in pay.

Stocker

Sweden is spending that little, and they have an *average* three month wait for any surgery. But f*ck it's free, so who needs to walk for those three months when you are waiting for a knee replacement?



The systems are not comparable. Market-based reforms make even the Swedish way work better. Get government out of the way and prices will go down.

Tibbi

I've said it before and I will shout it from the hill tops if I have to. Medicare and Medicaid set their own costs. They tell pharmaceutical companies and service providers what they are willing to pay in a very blatant "take it or leave it" method. My wife worked as an accountant for one of the largest dialysis providers in the country. Medicare paid them roughly 60% of raw cost (that does not include overhead or any profit) and accounted for 75% of their business. Do the math!! That's 45% of COST.







Example:

If I make herpaderpatol and it costs $1 per pill, lets just presume I have to charge .25ยข per pill to make overhead and then in any business there is the goal of 100$ profit. So herpaderpatol on the shelf would cost $2.25 per pill. However Medicare comes in an says we need you to promise us 7500 units per month and we'll pay you 60ยข per pill. Now my current production of herpaderpatol is around 2500 pills/month so this is a damn nice opportunity, but we can't even produce as many as they want at that price. And stockerspill is an upstart medication for the same ailment. To maintain the namesake in the market one must secure that medicare contract, it's just law of numbers. You have two options: Tell medicare to eat a dick and hope that stockerspill doesn't cut into our market share too much?

Sell at 45% profit and charge $7.65/pill just to make up the difference?



That's not even including insurance deals which could double that number