15/03/2005 1:56:13 pm
High Tax Pressure Leads to Ever Higher Taxes. You would imagine that in a country with very high taxes, people would want lower, not higher, taxes. Oddly, there are many signs of the opposite. Today an opinion poll among the Swedes conducted by Sifo and published in Metro showed more people that want higher taxes than those who do not. The question is a bit leading, but that is how politicians would pose it: "Would you consider paying higher taxes if that meant reinforcements for health care, schools and elderly care?". 57 % said yes and 39 % said no. Among the young, 64 % said yes. And in the US, where taxes are much lower, we could see not least in the latest election that proposing higher taxes is not something that is popular. So how can it be that the higher taxes you have, the higher taxes people want - and vice versa? I think it is quite simple. If you have high taxes, government takes care of large parts of your life. Often, these are also important parts. Thus, you are dependent on government to a large extent. And if you want to improve those parts of your life, you have to give more money to the government. (Which the politicians also like to remind you.) And in a country with lower taxes, you are used to taking care of that by yourself and higher taxes make it harder. So it is a trap, a vicious circle. Someone once called it the smartest coup d′etat ever.