High taxes in Scandinavia fund free child care and college education and a wide range of other quality public services. America’s low taxes -- on the rich -- have brought a tattered safety net and rising inequality.

1. “Free market” orthodoxy holds that high
taxes, especially on the rich, make life and
economies miserable. U.S. conservatives
even make candidates pledge to “oppose
any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
Sources: Credit Suisse Research Institute Global Wealth Report 2014; Henrik Jacobsen
Kleven, How Can Scandinavians Tax So Much? Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2014;
OECD, Focus on Top Incomes and Taxation in OECD Countries, May 2014. Icons: Luis Prado.
48.2% 42.8% 45.8%
24.8%
Denmark Norway Sweden USA
Tax revenue as share of GDP, 2012
69.8%
60.8%
73.6%
43.3%
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
USA
Highest tax rate rich taxpayers face*
$76,974
$133,686
$79,502
$70,690
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
USA
GDP per adult, 2014
38.4% 30.8% 28.9% 29.3%
USA Sweden Norway Denmark
But Scandinavia’s economies are doing just fine. They’re generating
more wealth, by population, than the U.S. economy.
Scandinavian
nations, this tax
mindset suggests,
ought to be basket
cases. No major
nations levy higher
taxes, especially
on their rich.
Top 1% share of income growth, 1975-2007
USA Sweden Norway Denmark
46.9% 8.8% 11.7% 2.5%
Top 1% share of national wealth, 2014
Taxing the Rich and Living to Tell the Tale
* Covers 2010 tax rates on income in top tax bracket
High taxes in
Scandinavia fund
free child care and
college education
and a wide range
of other quality
public services.
America’s low
taxes mean a
tattered safety
net — and rising
inequality.
Originally published in the February 2015 issue of Too Much, the Institute for Policy
Studies newsletter on excess and inequality. Subscribe at www.toomuchonline.org.