(06-11-2010, 02:37 PM)kandrathe Wrote:(06-11-2010, 06:58 AM)eppie Wrote: But did you think the average wage would be the same if taxes were 20 %? Of course not, it would be much lower.This may shock you. I've hired people at a wage higher than they've asked for, and I've given raises well above 15% when necessary. I believe a smart employer values their "human capital". When I've spent many years investing in the training of an employee, and find they are the perfect fit for an skill set that is hard to replace, then there is great incentive to reasonably "over pay" for that position. I've worked for manufacturing firms that pay their non-union labor at 150% of union scale.
So no. If taxes go down, wages do not go down. Employers calculate and compete at the gross wages level, and not take home pay. In the professions I deal with, wages are well over a "living wage", so any additional money is merely wealth that they have earned.
Where's Penn & Teller when you need them?
No shit employers "compete at the gross wage level", that's the wage they have to pay! What is being said is that they don't exist in a vacuum. You do not calculate wages without taking into account taxes.
Yes, if you have country X and country Z, with equal wages, but only country X have taxes, citizens from country Z will have more disposable income.
What you're ignoring is that they will also have more things to spend money on. Education, road maintenance, health care, elder care -- all those things paying taxes address.
We don't pay taxes because governments are greedy people who are just out to get you and make you into a wage-slave; we pay taxes because we get something in return.
Yes, often enough a lot of the taxes you pay do not affect you personally at the moment you pay them, but that's the nature of the system. If you only paid for what you personally needed, the system couldn't exist; there wouldn't be money enough to keep it running. The government's job is to decide where and what to spend your taxes on, and if they're not doing it right, you kick them out and get someone new.