Maastricht Treaty revisions needed?

[kandrathe]

No doubt the standard of living in Minneapolis is enviable, though remember we are comparing it to one of the most liveable cities in the entire world. You get a hell of a lot of intangibles from living in Copenhagen - low crime, high equality, great public transport, etc...

We are also a high tax state (relative to other states), with the amenities you cite. But no where near 60-85% on the top end, including VAT. From what I've read, most (60%) of the money gets spent on health care, and transfer payments (i.e. giving the money from those who earned it to those that didn't).

Now, some of the differences perhaps here are that we have a large influx of immigration to deal with, and being a high welfare state, we maintain a perpetual under class who don't need to pull themselves up by their boot straps. Maybe they have that problem as well. Our federal taxes (4.7% of GDP) are used to police the whole world, and Denmark spends about 1.2% of GDP for defense.