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I find it ironic that most people see europe as more liberal than the USA yet most people I know who move there are staunch conservatives who move there because the policies they care about and the people themselves are overall **less** liberal than the USA.
It seems very few people even realize that by many measures europe is more conservative rather than liberal. A prime example of this would be the taxation scheme which in much of europe has a lower ratio between the poor and the rich classes (closer to flat tax).
European social-democratic paradigm is reduction of income inequality. This is achieved by income taxation that is high for high-income earners (up to 50%) and low or zero for low-income earners, commonly known as progressive taxation (not because it's politically progressive, but because tax rate increases with absolute income).
So when you hear someone talking about "we pay lower/higher tax in EU" the first question is how much they earn in absolute terms.
