>>14157873>Why are Europeans, and ESPECIALLY Germans, so eternally stupid about failing to understand the meaning of the word "free" as it relates to social spending.I think it's a sort of 'out of sight, out of mind' thing.
If I understand correctly (Euros, feel free to correct me if I'm misinformed), taxation in most European countries happens behind the curtain, so-to-speak. Income taxes are applied at-source, they're taken out of your payroll automatically before your paycheck is ever issued, VATs are applied in-process, you pay whatever the sticker price is on a product and the total taxes on it aren't outwardly indicated. Compare that to the US where you can choose whether or not to have income taxes withheld proactively or can file and pay whatever's owed at the end of the year, and sales taxes are added to a purchase rather than incorporated into the sticker price. It's a subtle-but-important difference: Americans are constantly reminded of how much taxes are being taken out of their earnings and by who, whereas Europeans live in a sort of blissful ignorance.
Imagine you and a friend go to a restaurant and you both order 16 oz steaks. The waiter comes out to you first, with your delicious 16 oz ribeye, charred to perfection, medium rare, you feel your mouth water as they put the plate in front of you. Then, suddenly, the waiter picks up a fork and knife and cuts off a 4 oz piece and takes it back to the kitchen to give to the chef. He comes back with your friend's steak. The waiter doesn't cut up your friend's steak, but you can see they've been served an 8 oz steak instead of a 16 oz. You try to point this out to your friend but he's too busy making fun of the fact that your steak got cut up and he got to keep all of his steak.
