by Dan Mitchell | Jan 24, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
Back in 2019, I compared OECD nations based on the total burden of social welfare spending as a share of economic output. France was the worst of the worst, unsurprisingly, followed by Finland and Belgium. That column also differentiated by types of...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 20, 2017 | Blogs, Taxation
Back in 2014, I shared some data from the Tax Foundation that measured the degree to which various developed nations punished high-income earners. This measure of relative “progressivity” focused on personal income taxes. And that’s important because that levy often...
by Dan Mitchell | Aug 27, 2016 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
Statists occasionally get very angry about some of my views. My support for “tax havens” periodically seems to touch a raw nerve, for instance, though I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since some people are so crazy that they have even urged military action against...
by Dan Mitchell | Nov 2, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics
I’ve already commented several times on the good and bad features of the Nordic Model, largely to correct the false narrative being advanced by Bernie Sanders (though I was writing on this issue well before the Vermont Senator decided to run for Chief Commissar...
by Dan Mitchell | Oct 21, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Europe, Welfare and Entitlements
Whenever there’s a discussion of the Nordic nations, I feel conflicted. I don’t like the punitively high tax rates and socially destructive levels of redistribution in nations such as Denmark, but I also admire the very laissez-faire policies those countries have when...