Taxation in Bernie Sander's Democratic Socialism
It is appealing. free tuition, no student college loans, no taxes on the middle class, tax the rich and corporations, free health care for all even non-citizens. Sounds like a utopia. But, you know, that anything that too good to be true is probably a lie, or, half truth. Your gut tells you this despite the appeal.
Under the Sander's Democratic Socialism modeled after the Nordic systems that Bernie seems to want to copy, what Bernie does not want to tell you is about how it is paid for, the amount of disruption that his plan would cause, which would be bad. Even getting these passed via the Congress and Senate would hinder if not stop their progress. Not all Democrats want or like what Sander's wants.
Taxation
The Nordic countries have what Bernie wants for America. Yet, the reality is it is their high taxation is mostly on the average middle class.
- All income $60,000 or more is taxed at 60%!
- A national VAT would be 25% (in addition to a local state tax) on most all things purchased (there is no VAT in USA now).
- Taxes on corporations today is nearly 40%
- Payroll taxes would also be raised to around 25% from the 15% today
- The high income earners would be taxed 60%
As you can see, the Sander's methodology to pay for the free services would cost everyone much more than you are paying now. The VAT tax would increase your monthly food, fuel costs much more. Your income would not necessarily increase as employers also pay more in payroll taxes. Would your life be better? Waiting for a medical procedure for months, like many do in socialist countries, is not a good thing. While the college may be free tuition, you just know the college will make up for this loss of income, in some manner, or, not provide student health services etc. Student loan forgiveness would be an impossible task to implement. Millions of student loans would vanish, but how do the banks handle this sudden loss?
The Bernie Sander's pipe dream would disrupt everyday American life in many ways. It would be a disaster.
