Given your knowledge of the additional costs and earning ability in each jurisdiction, then yes, the graphs have local use for you.

I do have to disagree with this:

Indeed I do not really use much Government provided services, aside from basic infrastructure, which all 4 places have adequately provided.

That you don’t use it doesn’t mean you aren’t paying for it. ;)

I do tend to overreact to bad math. It’s a trigger for me, and I’m working on it.

Don,

Everyone seems to think I’m arguing that NZ is overly taxed. I’m not. this isn’t about that. It’s about the way the data is presented. It is comparing individual tax rates between NZ and the US and coming up with a graph. Since (I understand) that transfers to individuals make up substantial portions of government spending, in order to make sure that the comparisons are valid, the services offered must be made comparable. Otherwise, the data will favour the countries that do not offer the service - such as universal health care in the US. At the very least, I would include the cost to the employer of an HMO (bounded spending) health care plan, and pension benefit as part of the tax rate.

My use of unemployment rates was to merely point out the problem with comparing percentages without taking their meaning into account. It wasn’t meant as an argument that NZ sucks, or that it is tanking, or anything like that at all. Hence my additional comparison to the sexuality study.

My complaint is about presentation, not about the results. I’m very interested in seeing more researched results.

This sort of information is interesting:
http://icsc.un.org/col-rpi.asp
http://www.finfacts.com/costofliving.htm

Since that would seem to indicate the relative costs of a common basket of services (but not taxation).

“New Zealand now has the lowest unemployment rate within the group of OECD countries that have standardised unemployment rates.”

Conversely “employment is at the highest level recorded by the HLFS and the unemployment rate is the second lowest rate recorded.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0508/S00201.htm

So Lance is, in fact, comparing apples with apples.

What’s your next point?

For me this works, as I have a pretty good idea of my earning power, the major costs and the various government services in each jurisdiction.

Indeed I do not really use much Government provided services, aside from basic infrastructure, which all 4 places have adequately provided.

So for me, the frame of reference is fine. YMMV.

I’m not complaining about your findings, just the methods used to reach them. It is bad statistics. I would put it in the same barrel as someone performing a study on teen sexuality rates by talking to girls at a planned parenthood clinic.

Basically, your graphs show the same problems that every single news organisation has when they start to compare unemployment rates between countries. You can’t do it - they measure different things! For example, the US measures it as a percentage of population, while Canada measures it as a percentage of the workforce. It’s always funny to watch journalists complain that Canada’s unemployment rate is usually twice the American one.

So, until you get a common frame of reference, comparisons like those made in this post are, at best, misleading.

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about being over taxed 39% is not a high top tax rate and the difference between highest and lowest rates is quite small.

Maybe some comment on the reasons why progressive taxation is considered “fairer” by many economists would also be in order.

It is easy to throw stones - perhaps you didn’t read to the end? The bit about this taking a thesis to do this properly? Of course this is simple - I only had an hour or two.

ACC levies are in there, as explained. In the caveats, if you read them?

Health Insurance is in there for Australia, you don’t have to pay it in the USA or the UK. (I didn’t in either, though my employers did)

Education is generally included in the tax basket. Actually in the US it is paid for out of rates (not included), in other places by other taxes. As a single taxayer (that’s the example I used) I am not unduly concerned about education costs. Yet.

GST, like rates, is not an income tax, and don’t get me started on the convoluted state by state sales taxes in the USA. The thing is, with consumption taxes you only pay if you spend, and so they are also regressive.

Fuel taxes are another exception. Actually I’d rather be paying higher fuel (and smoking & drinking) taxes than lower. There’s a nice public good element to these, whereby it reduces out overall tax burden to make access to these things exensive.

Overall if you want to construct a basket then you’ll pretty rapidly run into trouble. What is education? The quality of the high schools in the USA is woeful comared to NZ. The universities also suck. Unless you go to Groton. Or Yale. Which one do you pick? If you are poor then Yale will help you financially - should you factor that in?

How do I account for the fresher tastier food in NZ than in the USA? How do I account for restaurants being from trivially cheap to wildly expensive in NYC? How do I account for the differences in actual fuel consumption in the US (big, ugly cars) to NZ (small eficient ones?). For that matter - what constitutes an average car is quite different in Europe and NZ from Australia and USA.

How do I account for efficiency in tax collection services? ability to start a business in 1 hour in NZ versus days or weeks in other places?

What about savings ratios? capital gains tax? access to capital markets? average rents (rent controlled or not?) average house prices? average amount of food consumed? Average income?

The list goes on.

It’s not so easy, But you do have to start somewhere.

No inclusion of ACC levies, health insurance (or taxes), transport levies, education, fuel taxes, GST, etc.

Here’s what you do.

1) Define a set of government services - this is your basket of goods.
2) Price them in each jurisdiction.
3) Add up the price for each income bracket.

Essentially, the BigMac index for government services.

Now prepare your graphs.

Anything else is comparing apples to oranges.