Comments by "nexus1g" (@nexus1g) on "The Happiest Country in the World is Hiding a Dark Secret" video.

@MichaelBerthelsen Are you including VAT into that figure into how much one is taxed? Presuming they're a part of the EU, they do have a VAT.
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@MichaelBerthelsen Separating such taxes is a dishonest take on how much the government takes in value from one's work. The number that we're trying to figure out is, "How much of your work do you get to keep?" Everything the government takes is precluded from that, regardless of the method.
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@MichaelBerthelsen You're not sure how to handle this. You have to determine average expenditures by tax type, broken down by quintile, to get a proper percentage of income represented for the major income classes. Simply adding percentages is your final figure presenting the assumption that the amount spent within the realm of a certain taxable type of spending is going to be equal to the spender's entire income. I'm sure even you see where the issue in that is.
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@MichaelBerthelsen The video didn't reveal to you what taxes they included in getting that tax rate. Perhaps it does include all taxes paid by an average lower-middle/middle/upper-middle class family. 60% does seem like it might be about right if that's the case. The thing here is that you're saying the video is wrong. Now that's your claim to prove. You're just playing games instead of proving your claim that it's wrong.
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@MichaelBerthelsen That, sir, is begging the question -- assuming something is either right or wrong without sufficient evidence. I would agree that he didn't provide sufficient evidence to prove his claim; however, you went further and said flatly that his claim was wrong. That's when you inherited a burden of proof to prove your claim that his claim was wrong. And your claim, "he'd have to just be adding up the highest rates possible in each category," is exactly what I'm trying to get you to prove, but you are reticent to. That's because you're in over your head. You're not sure how you could prove your claim that he was wrong. I'll give you the option now: did you mean to say that he simply didn't meet his burden of proof for the claim, or is your claim that he's wrong going to be the hill you die on?
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Does 60% include their VAT?
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So what's specifically wrong with it?
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