,
7 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
How do countries with really high tax revenues (relative to GDP) tax their citizens? Differently than the U.S. does, and much differently than @AOC and @SenWarren have proposed. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
One thing every affluent country taxes more heavily than the U.S. is consumption 
U.S. wealth taxes (in the form of real estate taxes) are high by international standards
The U.S. top marginal income tax rate is lower than, say, Sweden's or Denmark's, but the really big difference is in who pays. In the U.S. it's only very high earners. In Sweden and Denmark it's a big chunk of the middle class too.
On the whole, high-tax countries have less progressive tax systems than the low-tax U.S. does. This is not something new I just discovered. Here's @dylanmatt on the topic six years ago washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…
And here's economist Peter Lindert in 2003 nber.org/papers/w9869
There are reasons why small European countries have to tax differently than the U.S. does, and reasons to tax wealth and high incomes beyond raising revenue. But it's still weird how little attention these international comparisons get in Dem tax debates.
