The middle class has cars and houses, no? We picture a marxist as a wild eyed bomb thrower maybe but nowadays Republicans will go along with economic schemes to quell the economic cycles [and it never works, it actually makes them worse] and help the poor [and it creates more poverty], etc.. so everybody is a marxist to some extent. The people that suck money out of the public sector only want a bigger public sector. They don't care if the borrowing leads to collapse. Currently the richest counties in the U.S. surround Washington D.C. so that tells us that if we build it they will come. It's difficult to tax people that can pay off politicians. The only people that can be taxed effectively are workers that get the payment confiscated from their paychecks before they even get paid. Corporations and small businesses can donate to a politician and get complete immunity from paying income taxes. I've read the actual tax codes, it's two yards of books on a shelf and every page has specific tax immunities for specific businesses on it. It's all written so that you can't pinpoint the business or the politician that wrote it... So the middle class is powerless to avoid taxation and some wealthy people allow themselves to be taxed and government is seen as the answer to everything. Government grows and saddles the workers with the costs and we wonder why the middle class keeps losing out year after year after year...
Yes, but is this causation or correlation? A higher %age of the population speaks English in Cyprus than in Germany and yet... I am not quite convinced, although I think integration into the world economy is a factor.
Cyprus may have other issues that are holding it back. Believe what you want to believe, I'm not a charity service. My time is valuable.
Europe has been losing population since America was discovered. You cannot change that no matter how hard you stomp your feet. Your social systems have brought EU members to their knees. Eventually EU will fall apart under it's own weight. You all need to face the facts, historically you all never got along, a piece of paper isn't going to change that. It may not happen tomorrow, but it will happen evenutally. http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/20/news/economy/europe-euro-survival/
You're trolling dude. People are giving you valuable information and there's been no appreciation. Well done, you're on ignore.
It's not taxes. The rich don't pay taxes because for the most part, their wealth is not derived from wages but assets and asset growth. The monetary policies of the last several decades have inflated assets. The easy credit regime. Steve Jobs was worth billions at the time of his death. When he came back to AAPL, he took a salary of exactly $1 a year. The irony of course is he never paid taxes. Instead of a salary he got millions in AAPL stock options that grew exponentially. He never sold the stock so not even capital gains were generated. On the flip side, where the poor are lacking in assets, they make up for in debt. They are "paying" interest on their debt. They pay rent. They lease. They borrow. It's a vicious cycle. Their debt burden continues to grow while the assets of the rich continue to grow. THIS is where the inequality is coming from. Can they escape? Not when it costs 150k to get an education. Not when you are drowning in debt. Hell they can't even afford to pay just the interest on their debt every month much less pay down the principle. The fact of the matter is, the US has the most liquid, most deep, most complex capitalist system in the world. Anyone who can own assets, leverage assets, and borrow to cheap to attain these assets are going to go down the road to wealth. High salaries are not going to cut it. The irony of course is that our very President is the epitome of this. He never earned a salary in his life. His wealth came from the accumulation of assets and cheap debt compounded over time. And he used every trick in the system to bail himself out when the times got tough. And another thing, you keep using the term globalization in terms of just labor but never mention globalization of capital. But keep believing what you want. It's a free country...for now.
I can't speak for non pure tech firms, but in tech I can confirm my position is the norm currently. Certainly a complicated issue, but the most direct way is: go work at a tech company not a bank. If you are at a bank and you can code, your likely not doing IT anyways.
What's the difference with the US? 5 european countries have more debts then the GDP. Well the US has the same problem. Also over 100%. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S