Corbyn suggests earnings limit

[Cyclone]

Going by the Gini coefficients for the countries with the most equal income distribution they are (top 10)

 

1) Ukraine

2) Slovenia

3) Norway

4) Belarus

5) Czech Republic

6) Slovakia

7) Kazakhstan

8 ) Iceland

9) Finland

10) Romania

 

The happiest countries in the world (according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network) are (top 10)

 

1) Denmark

2) Switzerland

3) Iceland

4) Norway

5) Finland

6) Canada

7) The Netherlands

8 ) New Zealand

9) Australia

10) Sweden

 

There is some overlap (Norway, Iceland and Finland) but it suggests there is more than just equality of income that makes a country happy or not.

 

Are the happiest countries not (by and large) strongly socialist with high tax and very good welfare systems? Quite the opposite of the conservative ideal.

[Mister M]

As a matter of interest how would you get an international footballer to play for Chelsea for £300K when he was being offered £0 million by Real Madrid?

 

I don't know how I would get an international footballer to play for Chelsea for £300K when he was being offered £0 million by Real Madrid, because I've no interest in football whatsoever.

[Robin-H]

Are the happiest countries not (by and large) strongly socialist with high tax and very good welfare systems? Quite the opposite of the conservative ideal.

 

That's a different argument. We can discuss that if you want.

[unbeliever]

Are the happiest countries not (by and large) strongly socialist with high tax and very good welfare systems? Quite the opposite of the conservative ideal.

 

That's a different question to the one we've been discussing.

The wealthier countries are the happier ones, not the most equal but the wealthiest. Now that we've got that settled...

 

 

There's some data on government revenue and government spending as a percentage of GDP here:

https://data.oecd.org/gga/general-government-spending.htm#indicator-chart

I guess the percentage of GDP controlled by the government is a decent indication of how socialist a country is. Not sure how else you'd measure it.

 

Denmark is high, but not as high as France (57%) which doesn't appear in the happiness top 10.

Switzerland is very low (~33%).

 

So I'd say that on the face of it there is no correlation between socialism and happiness.

 

 

Are you not rather starting from the conclusion and then hunting around for anything resembling confirmation. You may happen across something to validate your position eventually that way but you've tripped over a few things which dispute it already and then moved on.

Edited January 12, 2017 by unbeliever

[Cyclone]

That's a different argument. We can discuss that if you want.

 

Not an argument so much as an observation.

 

But don't they have high tax rates to support their strong welfare state? And wasn't a higher rate of tax part of the discussion regarding controlling high paid salaries?

 

---------- Post added 12-01-2017 at 15:34 ----------

 

The wealthier countries are the happier ones, not the most equal but the wealthiest. Now that we've got that settled...

 

I certainly wasn't conceding that. Don't get ahead of yourself.

 

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/12/income-inequality-makes-people-unhappy/416268/

 

While happiness did track the level of economic development across these 16 advanced nations, the results changed when inequality was added to the equation. Higher levels of inequality led to lower levels of happiness, even in the most economically advanced nations. In fact, the researchers found that the percentage of respondents who said they were very happy was inversely cor*related with income inequality (with a negative correlation of −.618).

 

Every single time income inequality decreased between two time points, the percentage of ‘very happy’ responses went up," the researchers write. “And every time income inequality increased, the percentage of ‘very happy’ responses went down. In other words, although economic growth was steady and strong during this period, the evenness of the income distribution was fluctuating, and happiness was inversely related to income inequality.”

 

So people are happy with economic improvements, but they are happier if income equality comes down, and less happy if it increases.

 

Indeed, the study found that it is the even distribution of economic growth across a population that accounts for greater happiness. In contrast, when economic growth is concentrated among a small portion of a nation’s elite, it does not lead to greater life satisfaction.

Unsurprising really.

 

The nations in the upper left-hand quadrant have low inequality and a positive correlation between happiness and GDP, and include Scandinavian and European nations like Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France—as well as Japan.

And since we're mostly interested in ourselves, we're there, in the upper left hand quadrant.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Cyclone

[unbeliever]

I certainly wasn't conceding that. Don't get ahead of yourself.

 

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/12/income-inequality-makes-people-unhappy/416268/

 

 

Did you look at the data I found?

 

Denmark has high state spending, but Switzerland is very low and Iceland is pretty average.

So there is no correlation between socialism and happiness.

[Robin-H]

Not an argument so much as an observation.

 

But don't they have high tax rates to support their strong welfare state? And wasn't a higher rate of tax part of the discussion regarding controlling high paid salaries?

 

 

 

Some do, some don't.

 

Denmark has a high tax rate.

 

Switzerland isn't any higher than ours - in some Cantons of Switzerland the maximum income tax is 22% - I don't think it exceeds 40% anywhere.

 

Tax is lower in New Zealand than here, and is lower in Canada.

[Hopkins]

Has anyone noticed that none of the political parties promise to do anything regarding plugging the tax avoidance loophole?

Billions in revenue is lost every year due to fat cats and corporates using our flawed tax system.

[Robin-H]

Has anyone noticed that none of the political parties promise to do anything regarding plugging the tax avoidance loophole?

Billions in revenue is lost every year due to fat cats and corporates using our flawed tax system.

 

Haven't any of the political parties promised anything?

 

I seem to remember all major parties were pledging to be harsher on evasion and avoidance at the last election. Indeed I believe some changes have already been made.

[Hopkins]

Haven't any of the political parties promised anything?

 

I seem to remember all major parties were pledging to be harsher on evasion and avoidance at the last election. Indeed I believe some changes have already been made.

So name them.