Happiest People Pay Highest Taxes

Denmark has taken the top spot on the United Nation's first ever World Happiness Report, followed by Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.

The rankings in the report were based on a number called the "life evaluation score," a measurement which takes into account a variety of factors including people's health, family and job security as well as social factors like political freedom and government corruption. Source: World Happiness Report http://bit.ly/HLpr0Y

What do these happy people have in common?  They all pay the world's highest tax rates!
Those happy Danes pay an income tax rate up to as high as 55.4% and a Value Added Tax [VAT] of 25% on all goods and services.

Those happy Finns pay national [6.5% to 30%] and local [16% to 21%] income taxes and VAT rates from 9% to 23%.

Those happy Norwegians pay up to 47% income tax and a 25% VAT on most goods and services.

Those happy Dutch pay up to 52% in income taxes and a 19% VAT.

What about Americans?  We're #11 on the World Happiness List. We pay from 0% to 25% in Federal income tax and, in some states, from 0% to 10.55% income tax.  State and local sales taxes range from 0% to 10.5% depending on the state and locality.   Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_around_the_world

Now I am not claiming that there is a direct cause-and-effect relationship between paying high taxes and happiness!

But what I am claiming is that paying high taxes does not necessarily make people unhappy!

When discussing taxation, I often use the metaphor of a country club.  If you want to belong to a ritzy country club, the dues are high.  You can't belong to a ritzy country club on the cleap; if the dues are too low, the country club goes bankrupt.

But Americans--especially Republican politicans in thrall to Grover Norquist--seem to want to belong to a ritzy country club called America, but without paying the dues.
But in nations, just as in country clubs, you get what you pay for.

Jagor