If we invaded and conquered Luxembourg we could get half of EU’s GDP back from the tax evasion scheme that is that whole country’s raison d’etre.
HALF. EU is twice as rich, in actuality. HALF of the GDP disappears into a black tax hole in Luxembourg.
Fuck Luxembourg.
Don’t forget Ireland, the Netherlands, Malta, Cyprus and even Hungary. They don’t want tax harmonisation for a reason.
Sure, sure. Let’s start with getting 50% of our fucking money back from Luxembourg, then we can talk about what to do with it.
I like the spirit.
Source?
I thought Luxembourg’s high GDP was mostly from the high number of people who cross the border to work there but don’t live there. But I’m interested in factual info, not attached to this nugget of opinion
maybe
maybe if we put an example on
alderaan. Luxemburg, the well defended other havens like Switzerland and Ireland get in Line out of fearreal talk: we dont need to resort to invasions. the eu just needs to let their tax offices coordinate investigations with gloves off and the courts need to actually make their work count. punish meddling of bankers and their corrupt friends in politics. dont repeat cum ex where they did as they please
I truly believe this wouldn’t work: if we invaded luxembourg, the companies just move elswhere. Then why don’t we invade all other tax haven countries ? And force them into “our” believes? i think because “sadly” the fighter jets and stuff to invade countries isn’t payed by the working class who want more tax income from the “rich” so who gets the say over it?.
The system is not the Problem, never was. its like saying the church and religions cause war. That is not the case. The problem is Humans rival each other by design. “How come norway is rich and has a high tax in wealth?” one might ask. Becaus they own 1-2% of All the stock market of the world. Why is switzerland so insanely rich? Because the evaded the war and were a save haven. Every country that is rich, is so by pure Luck OR by showing rival traits against other countries. No one has a low poverty rate and is nice.
The system is not the Problem, never was.
Brave words.
Humans rival each other by design
Humans literally cooperate by genetic design.
Every country that is rich, is so by pure Luck
I appreciate the fact that you may not be very well educated, and I appreciate the effort to have an opinion on matters outside the scope of your knowledge horizon, because that’s how we learn to get there.
It would genuinely take too much time to refute every single point you made because it would be like grading a failing paper. Not trying to be mean, just explaining why I won’t.
ok, then good luck by invading and being happy afterwards. send me a postcard
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Found the teenager from Luxembourg
What a mess! I love defending other people’s heterodox opinions so I was rubbing my hands at the sight of yours. But… This is such a bunch of unfalsifiable generalities and tautologies that I hardly know where to start.
To be fair, English is obviously not your native language, and you do an okay job of expressing yourself nonetheless. 6/10 for that, let’s say.
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Apparently the Basque Country is one of the most egalitarian areas in Europe. I remember seeing somewhere that there’s more worker co-ops there than in the entire US.
Yeah yeah co-ops aren’t the cure for capitalism insert caveats here.
Also, funny they included the zoom in for Liechtenstein just to show that there’s no data, but it’s probably just a standardized layout.
They aren’t the cure for capitalism the way that traders weren’t the cure for feudalism.
Trees grow from seeds though. Join co-ops wherever possible.
I think that’s where they have the world’s largest semi-autonomous area, based around egalitarianism, self-sufficiency and ecology. I was looking into moving there. It’s a whole process being accepted, by in theory, they allow anyone to join the commune.
I also keep an eye out for good places to live, since the usual emigration destinations (US, UK, France, Canada) aren’t looking so hot. I don’t speak Spanish (or Basque either if you can believe it) so this one is a bit on the far fetched end. It’s hard enough to get a job without moving, let alone in places where tens of thousands more people are looking for work. I’d still like to visit San Sebastián and Bilbao someday though.
Not that I wouldn’t want to start something up in that model where I live. I crunch the numbers every few months for a pipe dream: a quietly anarchisty repair cafe/makerspace/workshop — and unless everyone in my town suddenly wants to pay 10 USD for a pay-what-you-want cappuccino it’s not happening. Average salary where I live is still like 600 USD since the economy popped in 2019.
Spanish (or Basque either if you can believe it) so this one is a bit on the far fetched end.
This was the preliminary deal-breaker for me, and I speak four languages including Portuguese, and could pick up Spanish without much fuss, but yeah you need to be able to communicate on their terms.
I crunch the numbers every few months for a pipe dream: a quietly anarchisty repair cafe/makerspace/workshop — and unless everyone in my town suddenly wants to pay 10 USD for a pay-what-you-want cappuccino it’s not happening.
Depending on where you live there are possibilities to receive grants or other type of funding. I just read about this today, a bunch of kids 18-30 in Surrey, England, who wanted to rewild portions of lands somewhere (Britain is among the worst deforested and de-“natured” areas in the world, apparently, they’re at 50% left of species and biodiversity, compared to a global average of 75%), they wanted to start eco projects.
They said they reached out for about six months writing and talking to land owners to be allowed on their land and basically revitalize it, and they found someone who agreed. And when the landowner agreed, the group got a grant from some foundation, and they set up camp, and they did what they said they would and restored the area and now it’s teeming with life and they say that they expect to have the first wild storks moving in in England since the 1600’s!!
Sorry for being long-winded, I’m just passionate about these types of project, and maybe you could find inspiration here to do something like what you said too. I know how hard shit can be, and it depends a lot of where you live, but if you think about it, there are always online communities and crowd funding efforts that are super into these types of alternative projects, so don’t give up hope.
If you wanna talk some more, I’m here. :)
Missing: Miquelon/St-Pierre (FR)
It’s obviously a relative measurement, but I find it impressive that Czechia is on the same level as Norway, given that the former just elected an oligarch for PM for the second time and the latter is often held up as a shining example of a country getting things right.
I was excited to see this as well. I visit Czechia often. What makes it even more interesting, and makes me wonder how it impacts this stat, is how much “cash discount” tax evasion I know happens. And I mean like, it isn’t even hidden. I’ve seen multiple Prague restaurants with both signs (like outside the front door!) and webpages with HUGE notices about a 30% discount for cash. Like, that is NOT because of the swipe fees which are EU regulated. When I asked a friend who owns a bar why, she said it was to avoid the taxes. Even she was surprised they were so brazen about the discount, but not that surprised.
That said, any Czechs who want to chime in to correct me / expand on the topic, I’d be very interested in your perspective.
As a Dutchman living in Germany I understand that feeling. Germany too is a very cash heavy society. With that comes widespread tax evasion. Anyone who has ever hired a contractor for any repairs around the house will know the question: with or without invoice? It’s the same for any restaurant. More often than not the card payment terminal will be “out of order” right now, but cash is welcome.
Yeah at least Old Town Prague and surrounding areas hasn’t been too bad about magically broken CC machines. And only like one place we go regularly is 100% cash only, which means they also don’t advertise a specific discount.
I was VERY surprised at how much Germany didn’t want to accept CC. Sure we were in Essen which isn’t touristy, but even Dortmund was more CC-averse than Prague and we were in Dortmund the week before the Euro’s in 2024. Heck I think Koblenz was less CC averse! But my previous experience was Frankfurt and Nuremberg touristy areas so that colored my previous perception of Germany’s CC acceptance I’m sure.
As for trades people, HA! Yeah my dad was commercial HVAC for diners in New Jersey in the 70’s thru 00’s. LOTS of cash in those businesses. “How much for cash?” was a very regular question the owner would ask him when he handed them the invoice ;-)
People have more support services in Norway, I’ll bet. Not because Czechia isn’t normal but because Norway IS that awesome.
given that the former just elected an oligarch for PM for the second time a
Because of course they fucking did.
God damned it Scandinavia how fucking far you have fallen in these past three decades. Jesus christ.
I think “the former” was referring to Czechia (central/eastern Europe), and the “shining example” Noway (Scandoland)
South Italy at high risk, as expected
while the north are the less likely overall. Is there a civil war there?
A civil war would finish sooner or later… mafia never stops
The historical background is also really interesting: the north conquered the south because the north was having economical problems. So they arrived, plundered all they could and basically left the south almost without government for years. That’s when mafia got its footing. Then there was a century of “nobody cares about the south anyways” politics. Only with democracy the government started caring a bit more, but there is such corruption and collusion that getting rid of mafia is close to impossible.
ty for the info.
Shall we consider the hypothesis that the south tend to under report its wealth? Mafia people wouldnt anyone to know how rich they are. I recall the mediterrean diet as longevity hack being debunked, because poor people in Italy and Greece pretended to be older (or hided death of loved one) for some administrative benefit. We could have something similar to explain the striking difference in north and south Italy
Old info from the ministry of economics (2010ish) in Italy is that at lest 30% of the economy is black (unreported). The majority of it would be in the south.
Yeah, in the south Italy there is even one of the more powerful and widespread mafia of the world: 'ndragheta. Kinda hard to eliminate when it’s on every continent
No civil war, just a lot of mafia and years of governments not developing the south enough, eventually the mafia became hard and harder to kill, and to today i can say that the effort to do anything for the south Italy is low.
Prime for conquest! Just invade, plant wheat, be the bread basket of Rome!
Interesting definition of poverty (60% of median disposable income before social transfers). Definitely better than the US (3x interest-adjusted grocery costs from the 60s, really stupid when we pump so many subsidies into food) but it probably is still not a perfect measure.
A Sasha Grey movie
Stupid sexy Flanders …
Sjælland looks fishy. The north part is the wealthiest region of the country, the south part is possibly the poorest, but here the colors are flipped. Does the capital really make such a big difference? How is this measured?
It could be to do with the fact that this is not a map of average wealth but of how much of the population is at risk of poverty. I don’t know what Copenhagen or North Sjaelland are like, but prosperous capital cities do often attract less well-off people looking for opportunities and also have high costs that make the situation precarious for people who would be doing fine on the same income elsewhere. That could explain a high proportion being at risk of poverty even though the average income/wealth is very high
Yeah, I’m a little surprised by this too. Maybe it’s like 9.9% and 10.1% or something?
Ticino surprised me.
