The happiest countries pay more taxes
Benns' Belief
Roderick Benns is the publisher of The Advocate. An award-winning author and journalist who grew up in Lindsay, he has written several books including Basic Income: How a Canadian Movement Could Change the World.
A few months ago, some international news headlines shared recent data on the world’s happiest countries. Not to my surprise, the top four happiest nations on earth are Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden – and Norway was seventh.
These are social democratic nations. They believe in free enterprise (think of companies like Bluetooth, Skype, Spotify, Nokia, or Minecraft) and yet they also believe in taking care of each other. The results are societies where wealth is being created by the private sector and yet there is a fairer distribution of that bounty through many social benefits.
This means that services such as child benefits, parental leave, health services and hospitals are all funded to a much better degree than in Canada.
But what about those awful taxes over there, ask North Americans, who drink from the well of American political discourse. Well, as the headline above says, the happiest countries pay more taxes. But admittedly that’s a bit of wink-wink click bait on my part.
Ana Partanen, the Finnish author of The Nordic Theory of Everything who experienced life in the U.S. when she moved there, shows that the U.S. pays more, gets less, and faces more risk than the Nordic countries. That’s because when you add up all the taxation in the U.S., including hidden taxes, and costs of childcare, senior care, and education, it’s an apples and oranges comparison.
In addition to their taxation belief, the U.S. also loves to talk about how free they are. As Partanen writes, “In the U.S., the absence of a social welfare system actually reduces our freedom, not only by limiting our choices based on our family origins, but also by putting the burden of duties like health care and education on our social ties. How does it make sense that your health care depends on a partner or your education on your imperfect, mortal parents, and how do we call that freedom?”
For the record, Canada was 15th in the happiness index – and yet nine years ago we were fifth. We are dropping the ball on our once credible healthcare system (despite the awesome caregivers who work in it), other than a glimmer of hope pushed by the federal NDP on pharmacare and dentalcare. But what premier is doing the work to create a seamless, patient-centred healthcare experience? No one.
As well, this country’s housing situation has been an abject failure across party lines over decades. Increasing inequality has also been rearing its head here for too long. Is it any wonder happiness levels are decreasing, just from these three significant issues?
It’s time for our political leaders to make us all happier. As a citizen, I’d get behind all of them jumping on a plane and spending a week in Helsinki or Copenhagen if they could just take some notes and then actually find the courage to implement the successful practices they discover.
If you have faith in our ‘leaders’ to spend tax dollars wisely, you are free to VOLUNTARILY send the CRA as much money as you want to, anytime you want to. I, for one, am sick and tired of watching Canadian politicians hand our money over to corrupt people in other countries while simultaneously giving themselves big pay raises.
Canada has been on a downward trajectory since 2015. Funny how this downward spiral coincides with the election of Trudeau. This has happened in every single western nation, in the past few years, that has been ruled by the left. If anyone disagrees, please name one western nation that hasn’t declined under liberal leadership. USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, UK, France, and the rest of Europe are being ruined by left wing ideology, promoted by the anti-west U.N . For some reason, left wing politicians in the west are compelled to take direction from the U.N. All you have to do is look at how liberal politicians all over the world have reacted, to the Oct.7 attack in Israel, to see how heavily influenced these fools are by the U.N. In recent elections, in a few European countries, right of center parties have been elected by voters. The people have had enough of left wing politicians ruining their countries and their lives . Americans are so fed up with Biden and his bizarre lefty policies that it actually looks like Trump will be elected once again. That’s how desperate Americans are to change the trajectory they are on. Have Canadians had enough ? Unfortunately we have another year before finding out.