Subject:
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Re: Lego prices?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 14 Jan 2004 17:25:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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719 times
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In lugnet.general, Nick Kappatos wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Pedro Silva wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> > That however does not explain why LEGO in Denmark is more expensive than most
> > anywhere else except for the UK.
>
> I just came across this site:
>
> http://www.workindenmark.dk/
>
> Look around here, and one finds that health care is paid for (I think my health
> plan co-pay just went up to $25 per visit, in addition to the premium taken out
> of my paycheck), as well as many other aspects of life in a socialist state.
> Unions, public safety.... all this costs money. They tax the people, they tax
> the businesses. The businesses have to make money some how to survive. If
> selling a toy (the best toy in the history of the universe, mind you) for an
> extra $/EUR is how the merchants survive & country provides such a high quality
> of life, that should be worth it. I read a glowing report on the low crime
> rates in Denmark, and how the Queen walks around without a bodyguard. If I walk
> into the wrong KMart at the wrong time looking for sale bricks, it's curtains
> for Nicky.
To cut a long story short, VAT is not meant to fund healthcare. VAT is used for
"financing" the EU and is redistributed in the form of (mainly) agricultural
subsidies, but also the "convergency funds" that have allowed for
infrastructural work in poorer countries. The tax that funds healthcare is, in
many memberstates, implicit and deducted in the paycheque (like you wrote
above); or it's simply the income tax one pays yearly.
Regarding Denmark, they have one of the highest tax burdens, true, but mostly as
income tax (ergo, unnafecting LEGO prices on shelves).
> I also read in one of the recent articles about TLC's loss that America accounts
> for around 40% of TLC's revenues/profits/sales. If the way that figure is
> achieved is by competitively pricing the product in a "high-stakes" market,
> that's how economics work.
Hey, I'm all for it! You're preaching to the choir there, I happen to think this
course of action is needed and healthy.
Pedro
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego prices?
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| (...) This is not strictly true, as we have had VAT in Sweden since the fifties, and EU is not that old :-) The VAT is a tax on sales, and the money drawn in can be used for anything by the government. OTOH, EU has regulated VAT for its member (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Lego prices?
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| (...) I'll rescind the bit about health care, but there are still other services that VAT and other taxes pay for. Remember, we don't know what kind of taxes your retailers are paying. If they have to make up some of that burden on the retail price (...) (20 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Lego prices?
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| (...) True, it is a tax used for all kinds of expenditures. (...) That's not true. The EU gets a cut from VAT, but only a small part. I found figures for Germany in 1998 where the amount transfered to EU is about 20% of the total of VAT, and this (...) (20 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego prices?
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| In lugnet.general, Pedro Silva wrote: <snip> (...) I just came across this site: (URL) around here, and one finds that health care is paid for (I think my health plan co-pay just went up to $25 per visit, in addition to the premium taken out of my (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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