Oh US and your complaining about taxes. "You leave with ONLY 65% of your income after paying taxes". In Denmark you pay 60% in taxes, so you leave with 40% of your income in your pocket. And petrol is now more than $10/US gallon.
On the plus side, you get considerably more for it (I don't regret moving from California to Denmark myself). For example, healthcare is included in that price, whereas in the US you have to pay for it separately. If you subtract what you'd have to pay in the U.S. for healthcare premiums + copay, your takehome pay goes down considerably, especially if you're older than ~40, a freelancer / small businessperson who isn't part of a corporate group plan, or have a family. And the public transportation infrastructure is also much better in Denmark, at least in Copenhagen; it's much easier to get by in Copenhagen without owning a car than it is in the Bay Area. Also, university is free, so nobody has student loans (another thing that reduces many Americans' real takehome paychecks). Actually, better than free: university students are paid a small stipend to cover their living expenses.
I'm less annoyed by the level of taxation in California than the fact that, despite paying it, the money doesn't suffice to buy you health care, higher education, or good transit. If those were different I'd be happy to pay 50% more! (Also, you don't really pay an effective 60% tax in Denmark unless you make quite a lot of money. I make a decent professional salary and paid <40% overall.)
The problem isn't so much that the taxes are high, it's that the money is wasted. I think that if Americans saw a (domestic) example of high taxes being used in a productive manner, they would be much more open to the idea of a Scandinavian style cradle-to-grave system.
But as long as the states with high taxation are poster children for governmental dysfunction, there will be a palpable opposition to taxation. And that's why people who live in states like Texas (where there is no income tax, personal or business) enjoy having a small government so much.
Damn, that sucks. Are there any other big states that have more favorable tax laws?
The problem with Texas is that the growing Hispanic population is going to lead to it turning into another California in the next 10 to 15 years. It'll turn blue and the taxes will skyrocket.
Depends strongly on the area, with probably more focus than in the U.S. on whether the company will produce either scientific or cultural innovation in addition to profits, because many of the funds come from nonprofits or state initiatives. There is a lot of seed funding for companies that can show they'll produce a scientific impact, through either state-funded "research commercialization" grants (where a company will propose to turn academic research into a product), or through quasi-charitable private initiatives like http://www.novo.dk/composite-364.htm
There is also a ton of arts funding, much larger than in the U.S. on a per-capita basis, to the extent that it bleeds over into funding tech companies too. For example, Playdead (makers of Limbo) got their initial ~$150k in funding from the Danish Film Institute, and I know two founders with seed funding from the Nordic Game Program.
The western European model seems great if you want a life safely doing what has always been done.
And the American model seems great if you're part of the small percentage who are not merely differently but excellently different. Further problem: if everyone's special, no-one is.
You wouldn't understand the complaint unless you move here (I moved from a "high tax" country to SF).
The taxes are still high (any claims that the US is low tax are inherently just BS spouted by people who don't understand taxes) but you get nothing in return. That's the problem.
