US taxes - would you pay more to get more?

curious said:

I scrolled right on by it, I guessed. But it wasn't ahead of Norway or Sweden. The list was presented in reverse order. Sweden is the most atheistic country in the world, so France can't be ahead of it.

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That is exactly what happened. I got the order wrong because it was in reverse order. France is near the bottom of the 10.

curious said:

As far as innovation and socialism goes, European countries consistently come up with new drugs and other inventions. Americans tend to think that when they come out, they must have been invented here. Most don't even know which drug companies arene't American. And all those socialist countries in Europe have a much better cellular phone network, and cellular phones penetrated the market much faster than in the US.

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I think the origins of patents are really blurred these days because of the global stretch of the large corporations. But I would tend to agree especially with Switzerland having a number of inventions. All one has to do is go to Zurich and they are light years ahead in design of everything, from suit cases to whatever. Ditto Germany.

curious said:

I do think they go way overboard in some things, but I don't think that the people who depend on the government for their total support are people that are going to be innovative in any system.

I'm not sure how not being able to get adequate medical care or having a family bankrupted just by copays and other uncovered expenses makes us a more innovative country

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I still think the United States is genius in marketing especially on a large scale globally, and possibly that is the bottomline in the world. They can take anyone's invention and make it into billions and millions empires.

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