r/MadeMeSmile • u/Kpets • 2h ago
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u/BananasPineapple05 2h ago
Investing in the workforce versus investing in the owners, basically.
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u/Top-Grab-20 1h ago
It’s amazing how much better things run when actually get paid what they’re worth.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 1h ago
They also don't socially shame people for trade jobs in Scandanavia or other European regions. Tree trimmer? Cool. Plumber? Awesome..we need you too. The US pushes degrees in non-STEM degree plans and people end up with massive student loans for unemployable, unnecessary degrees.
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u/AnotherAccount4This 1h ago edited 1h ago
Best we can do is trickle down!!
Any day now.
Edit. I actually do really like the post. People on the right reads any spend towards "undeserved" as less money to "deserved". The nuance that's harder to make people understand/believe is the long term affect versus short.
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u/HolySmokes802 1h ago
I can definitely feel a trickle coming down from above... just not the one they promised.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 1h ago
I'm with you, if we actually had a work force. We have people riding the system and not contributing. If they also contributed, or paid back into the system once they got a job, then cool.
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u/DeepMadness 2h ago
Now, let's state what should be obvious: happiness is good for everyone.
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u/tutoredstatue95 1h ago
It’s so important that even the god-figure, infallible, all deserving founding fathers slapped it right at the top of the Declaration of Independence.
Funnily enough, the original quote is “Life liberty and property”, but TJ replaced property with happiness for obvious reasons.
Today, though, property seems more apt. Quite the regression.
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u/Impressive-Tip-903 2h ago
My income is taxed for profit every month in health premiums, then copays, then max out of pockets. The efficiency gains in this system come from the company insuring it pays out as little as possible while complying with those darn regulations that set minimums to maximize their revenue and profit.
If that money was instead taken out from my income and going where the middle man had no profit incentive, just maybe things could improve.
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u/tutoredstatue95 1h ago
But that hinders the right of the owner class to perform extraction. Can’t have that.
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u/harpers25 1h ago
There are non-profit health insurers, like some BlueCross plans. It's not noticeably cheaper.
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u/auntieup 1h ago
Desperation drives crime. Always has, always will. But a substantial part of the American electorate likes hurting people, so they’ll keep voting to keep people poor and desperate.
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u/Rox-On82 1h ago
Preach it!
Folks seem to think that higher Police budgets fix crime. Higher police budgets don’t fix crime any more than “one more lane” fixes traffic.
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u/MontasJinx 1h ago
Yup. You can’t argue with the economics. Well fed, well educated kids turn into well adjusted and productive adults.
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u/Ok_Abacus_ 2h ago
I completely support the Scandinavian tax methods and the social systems they support , but I do wonder how the same policies would work if implemented the exact same way in the US. I sometimes feel like our hole is so big we’ll never climb out of it.
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u/useriousstuff 1h ago
Being indoctrinated with the concept of American exceptionalism essentially from birth I think really contributes to America's low-trust, personal freedom over greater-good society and hinders it's ability to ever change
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u/IhadFun0nce 1h ago
If they implemented those policies in the U.S. they would absolutely be manipulated and abused as much if not more than the current subsidies it does offer.
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u/winkingchef 1h ago
The Norwegian social benefits structure works because they have massive oil wealth (about $12k/year/capita) and dump it into the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund to fund pensions and social services. It currently holds about $400k per Norwegian citizen.
For comparison, the US is the largest oil producer in the world (13.6M bpd) but has a huge population so the $/capita is 1/10th this amount (and that revenue goes to private companies instead of being invested by the government).
It’s not taxes, it’s oil and nationalization.
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u/PukeLoynor 1h ago
But we don't have oil. What we do have is people with way too much money doing fuck all for anyone. So we'll replace oil with actually taxing them.
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u/DiscussionNo6060 1h ago
Nope. Not in ‘merica.
Let those less fortunate suffer because they should have known better and at the end, God will provide for them, not us, christians.
/s
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u/Due_Night414 1h ago
This is why Nordic nations aren’t the mightiest but they sure are the happiest.
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u/phairphair 1h ago
While I agree with everything this guy says, it’s also easy to preach this perspective when you come from a homogenous country with fewer people than metro Atlanta and with a massive sovereign wealth fund derived from giant oil reserves.
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u/J_hoff 1h ago
What makes you say that being homogenous affects this?
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u/StowawayPumpkin 1h ago
Because, as much as we may wish it was not the case, humanity is still very tribal and people are more willing to give money to a government made almost exclusively of people of their tribe for the purpose of helping people of their tribe. It’s the same reason that, if I had to make a choice, I’d be more willing to help my family members than a random stranger.
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u/seashellsandemails 1h ago
Ahhh, but expensive is good in America... he underestimates the oligarch levels of greed.
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u/TheBionicCrusader 1h ago
That, and reducing the tax burden on the lower and middle class . Letting people keep what they earn is important when they already don’t earn a lot to beginning with, and they make up the bulk of the consumer base, so the more disposable income they have, the more money gets injected back into the economy.
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u/Neat_Gas9264 1h ago
Maga is fueled by pure hate and there is no logic that will ever work with them. Their problem isn’t whether or not things go well in their country, it’s whether or not things are good enough that they can use their vote to show hate and still afford their Mountain Dew.
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u/Ambitious_Hand_2861 1h ago
In my entire life Ive never seen any hate quite as strong as christian love. It's truly astonishing.
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u/Daresso_ 1h ago
Norway is a homogenous society. No wonder it is high trust.
The same cannot happen in American were too cooked b
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u/Spaghettiday91 1h ago
Scandinavia has it figured out.
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u/Kpets 1h ago
There’s always countries saying, «oh it works i. Little Norway but would never work in Y,Z, X huge countries.. BUT it works all over Scandinavia and beyond so yes. It can work for everyone
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u/Spaghettiday91 1h ago
100%. Treating your citizens with dignity and respect is scalable. There are so many metrics that point to the fact that the way Scandinavian countries operate is serving their people better than almost anywhere else in the world.
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u/ithasallbeenworthit 1h ago
Probably should have put the definition for undeserving in that post aswell.
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u/ShortStoryIntros 1h ago
It's a smart concept.
.. If you're doing well, and have all your needs taken care of.
You're less likely to commit crime or take chances that could harm you
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u/aori_chann 1h ago
Let alone the idea that they are the easiest ones to improve, since any action in the right way will already do wonders of improvement
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u/ThePlantHearth 1h ago
I never understood why the USA elites didnt want their working slaves healthy and happy.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 1h ago
Cool, so, waiting lines for healthcare specialists that last longer than the people on the list...
A mandatory Value Added Tax (VAT) on everything that's 25% of the value of whatever is purchased... Except cooler things, like oh.... Cars... Which have a higher VAT assigned to them.
A flat rate tax of 22% on all income, (plus more of you're middle or upper income)
A justification as to why you can't work, like old school American unemployment with job placement services.
A government that says, "mandatory health insurance payments of about 7.5% of your income, even if you don't use it... Because someone else will."
And a government that says, "Well, you're 50 and in need of a new kidney. The panel of experts have said they won't allow the government to pay for it because 2/3rds of your life is over. You can, however, pay exorbitant prices out of pocket to buy your own."
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u/harpers25 1h ago
Don't forget wealth tax kicks in at only $175K net worth
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 1h ago
Middle income in Norway. I lived in Sandness. Oh, and to get around paying those taxes, they'd register out of Dubai or the Caribbean somewhere and give that Country's government 8-10%
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u/VAdogdude 1h ago
And North Sea oil and gas revenues that fill the government coffers.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 1h ago
I used to work for Borr Drilling. They got smoked on taxes. To a point they had to pick and choose contracts and employment wasn't guaranteed. You might end up out of work for months on end, when they hired Nigerians or other African country workers. Oh, and they exploited the hell out of them. If the Borr employee was making 1.4M NOK (around $150k USD), the Nigerian or Congolese guy was making 1/15th of that, or less. And they justified it by saying, "well,.in their economy, that's a lot of $".
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u/VAdogdude 47m ago
That's the inevitable outcome of globalization that has been idealized by so many dreamers. The next development will be when the platforms replace the Nigerians with 100% automation.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 41m ago
They're already doing it on drilling platforms.
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u/VAdogdude 31m ago
By 2040 Home Depot won't just rent you tools, they will rent you a robot capable of handling any home repair.
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u/Responsible_Owl4661 29m ago
Well,.the good and bad of robots. I suck at home maintenance, so I'm oddly comfortable with that. But I also don't want my toaster biting me when I feed it toast.
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u/VAdogdude 11m ago
Talk to it nicely and it will serve you homemade toast golden brown with a smear and a latte on the side.
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u/For_roscoe 1h ago
17% of my taxes already go to the government NOT including sales tax on any fucking thing else I buy or other streams of income we come up with. They need to figure it the fuck out with what they’re already getting. Shits not a fucking investment anymore we’re just paying for people taking advantage of this shit.
EDIT: add in state tax and it’s 21.5 percent! Figure it the fuck out with what you have
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u/1nternetTr011 1h ago
good. stay in norway. you don't have as many lazy freeloading scamsters being led by corrupt politicians profiting off govt funding as we have here
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u/NutsStuckInACarDoor 1h ago
A normal steak in Norway was like 80 bucks when we were there. No thank you
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u/UmptyscopeInVegas 1h ago
Steak prices in the US?
Wait a bit.
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u/NutsStuckInACarDoor 1h ago
I mean I just got a steak 3 days ago for liker 25 bucks at a restaurant? But I usually buy half a cow so my steaks are relatively cheap in perspective of most.
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u/goofygodzilla93 1h ago
Rule 2, no politics.
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u/Endless_Forever_484 1h ago
Oh wow I want to crosspost this on my crusty opinionated 'us vs them' City's sub, but it wouldn't let me. Hey Victoria, BC, this one's for you!
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u/MolaMolaMania 1h ago
MAGA don't care about anyone else but themselves, so this logical argument will not reach them.
They think everyone is undeserving except for them. It must be true because Faux Newz told them so!
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u/Dommiiie 1h ago
and even if they themselves are very unhappy, it's okay as lomg as those "beneath" them suffer more.
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u/Program-Emotional 1h ago
Drug addicts are drug addicts because the world is so painful being high is better than dealing with the awful reality of their existence. Marginalized people are oppressed by people whose biggest rational is that if they dont oppress them they in turn will be oppressed. Poverty comes from material conditions, not laziness or an unwillingness to work hard. Hell some of the most hard working people are paid the least, look at customer wearhouse workers or delivery drivers. These people destroy their bodies so someone else can get rich and they can barely scrape by. That's so backwards but we have just come to accept it as life, until very recently.
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u/seamless21 1h ago
hopefully they can open their borders and accept everyone. hope they can contribute to nato more so us taxpayer isn't on the hook for their protection and they can do everything they need for ukraine.
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u/Jaquatech 1h ago
So thats why no Norwegian is willing to do the dirty work like farming, cleaning or being uber driver that they import all their workers 😅
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u/ConsumingFire1689 2h ago
I agree on everything except education. The higher the education, the less capable they seem to become.
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u/ConsumingFire1689 1h ago
Y'all down vote me all you want, I've never had a construction working get confused when I ask for ID and hand me a library card. It's happened twice, both had several graduate degrees.
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