Quote from dougie-lampkin :

Yea, but when you're 16 you're below minimum wage, meaning that wages aren't increasing, while the cost of everything else is

Ya, but you don't have to pay tax. And parents should still be giving you money!

Quote from Mikkel Petersen :

You forgot to take taxes into account.

What about taxes? Can you honestly list what you are paying in taxes? Do you have any idea? I sure don't have any idea what I pay out in taxes.

I pay 15% tax to the US federal government
I pay 1% to my local municipality.
I pay 3.7% to my state.
I pay 6% to my state for every item I purchase.
Of my fuel bill, I am guessing that 25% of that is taxes.
My telephone bill is approximately 50% worth of taxes and government fees.

Same with my satellite television. I am subscribed to $37 package of Direct TV, yet my bill is at least $65. That difference is taxes and government fees.

Electric bill is again, the same. I pay $85 for probably $30 worth of electricity.

My house payment is less than $500 per month. Yet I write out a check every month for $700. I pay for everyone else's kids to go to school because I own a house.

Taxes are not only a UK/European problem. We do have taxes in our country. About 25% come directly out of the paycheck every week. The rest are paid as you purchase stuff. I have read that we pay approximately half of our salary in taxes.

Over here we pay half our salaries to taxes (not approximately). That 6 % you have to pay for everything you buy, that's 21 % here. We have to pay taxes for our house too (it works like this: if you own a house, you pay the amount you should pay if you were renting it)..

Oh well, we have better health care

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

€1.30 here, seemingly a lot cheaper than England at the moment for some reason I'd hate to be filling a race car at the moment with oil prices though

thats why my race car is a 1000cc mini

Quote from sgt.flippy :

Over here we pay half our salaries to taxes (not approximately). That 6 % you have to pay for everything you buy, that's 21 % here. We have to pay taxes for our house too (it works like this: if you own a house, you pay the amount you should pay if you were renting it)..

Oh well, we have better health care

Does the Belgian government pay for health care? The Dutch govt. doesn't: we have to pay for our own. That adds another €150 per person to the monthly bills.

Quote from hrtburnout :

Does the Belgian government pay for health care? The Dutch govt. doesn't: we have to pay for our own. That adds another €150 per person to the monthly bills.

Depends, a lot of things are covered, some things aren't. Also depends which party you choose.

(In dutch: hier heb je gewoon de ziekenkas, je betaalt daar maandelijks wat voor, maar als er iets met je is worden de meeste kosten terugbetaald. En iedereen weet dat in Amerika de ziekenzorg op niets trekt :razz

Quote from sgt.flippy :

Depends, a lot of things are covered, some things aren't. Also depends which party you choose.

(In dutch: hier heb je gewoon de ziekenkas, je betaalt daar maandelijks wat voor, maar als er iets met je is worden de meeste kosten terugbetaald. En iedereen weet dat in Amerika de ziekenzorg op niets trekt :razz

Aha. Het belastingklimaat voor particulieren is in ieder geval beter in België dan in Nederland.