YOU DON’T SAY: Europe’s Taxes Aren’t as Progressive as Its Leaders Like to Think.

Europeans believe their tax codes are highly progressive, giving lower earners a break while levying significant proportions of the income of higher earners and corporations to fund generous social benefits. But that progressivity holds true only for direct taxes on personal and corporate income.

Indirect taxes, such as the value-added tax on consumption and social-security taxes (disguised as “contributions”), are a different matter. The VAT disproportionately affects lower earners, who spend a higher proportion of their incomes. And social taxes tend to kick in at lower income levels than income taxes, and extract a higher and more uniform proportion of income.

The result in Germany is a progressive system that isn’t.

You mean to say that Europe’s wealthy progressives have devised a tax scheme which makes it appear as though they’re paying their “fair share,” while in fact socking it to the little guy? Maybe Sarah Hoyt will let me borrow her shocked face.