Useful Tax Info in Graphs

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published their Top Ten Tax Charts. Here are two that I thought were significantly visual to demonstrate the U.S.'s somewhat lopsided views when it comes to taxes.

This first chart particularly resonated with me. Several years in a row, Denmark has been ranked as one of the 'happiest' countries. Oprah even visited Denmark. The question on deck was why they were so content with their lives. Thomas Kostigen at MarketWatch wrote:

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says people in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands are the most content with their lives. The three ranked first, second and third, respectively, in the OECD's rankings of "life satisfaction," or happiness.

There are myriad reasons, of course, for happiness: health, welfare, prosperity, leisure time, strong family, social connections and so on. But there is another common denominator among this group of happy people: taxes.

Northern Europeans pay some of the highest taxes in the world. Danes pay about two-thirds of their income in taxes. Why be so happy about that? It all comes down to what you get in return (my emphasis). (continue reading to read what they get)

Paul Krugman of The New York Times wrote about this: Aside from the low-tax status of the United States, it’s interesting to note that all the European crisis countries have relatively low taxes by European standards. I wouldn’t claim that this is a causal relationship — but it certainly puts the lie to those claiming that big welfare states were somehow responsible for the crisis.

This chart shows how we could HALT the rising debt that has everyone in an uproar (or at least a pseudo-uproar) if we do just this one thing - LET THE BUSH TAX CUTS EXPIRE. Just one - of what should be a no-brainer but is apparently not to the GOP in D.C. - thing.

To view the other top ten tax charts, go to the Off the Charts Blog at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.