News: A story about the tax system
Published: 2005-10-09 16:05:44 . Categories: Political
Personally I find this a good story describing the situation in Norway, and sadly it wasn't heard during our last election:
Ten acquaintances had dinner together on a restaurant every day. The bill always came on 1,000 NOK in total. Since it was a grand variance in the income and propery amongst the participants, they decided on splitting the bill like in the Norwegian tax-system.
The four least fortunate didn't have to pay anything. The fifth paid 10 NOK. The sixth paid 30 NOK, the seventh paid 70 NOK, the eight 120 NOK and the ninth 180 NOK. The rest, 590 NOK was paid by the wealthiest.
Everybody was happy about this arrangement, until the owner of the restaurant one day offered a rebate. They were the best customers, and he offered a discount of 200 NOK pr dinner. The group wanted to continue splitting the bill according to the tax-model, so the four least fortunate shouldn't pay. The question was what would happened to the other six. How would the rebate be split?
200 NOK split on six is 33.33 NOK in discount. This would mean that person five and six would get paid to eat, which was clearly unreasonable. The restaurant owner suggested that they reduced the bill so that it was equal for everybody, and offered a suggestion:
This involved that the fifth also got to eat for free, the sixt would pay 20 NOK, the seventh 50 NOK, the eight 90 NOK, the night 120 NOK, while the richest got the bill reduced from 590 to 520 NOK.
Everybody got a lower price, and nobody got worse out than before. Outside the restaurant, however they started comparing what they had gotten out of it.
I only saved 10 NOK, while he saved 70, said number six, and pointed on the rich number ten. Yeah, right, said number 5, that also got ten NOK in reduced bill. "He is rich, but he still got seven times as much as me." - "Why shall always the rich get the most?" screamed number seven, that got 20 NOK in rebate.
"And we didn't get anything", screamed the four least fortunate together.
"This system exploit the poor!"
The situation soon got out of control, and the nine others beat up the richest. The next day he didn't come to dinner and they ate without him.
When the bill came they discovered something even more important. 520 NOK was missing!
Ten acquaintances had dinner together on a restaurant every day. The bill always came on 1,000 NOK in total. Since it was a grand variance in the income and propery amongst the participants, they decided on splitting the bill like in the Norwegian tax-system.
The four least fortunate didn't have to pay anything. The fifth paid 10 NOK. The sixth paid 30 NOK, the seventh paid 70 NOK, the eight 120 NOK and the ninth 180 NOK. The rest, 590 NOK was paid by the wealthiest.
Everybody was happy about this arrangement, until the owner of the restaurant one day offered a rebate. They were the best customers, and he offered a discount of 200 NOK pr dinner. The group wanted to continue splitting the bill according to the tax-model, so the four least fortunate shouldn't pay. The question was what would happened to the other six. How would the rebate be split?
200 NOK split on six is 33.33 NOK in discount. This would mean that person five and six would get paid to eat, which was clearly unreasonable. The restaurant owner suggested that they reduced the bill so that it was equal for everybody, and offered a suggestion:
This involved that the fifth also got to eat for free, the sixt would pay 20 NOK, the seventh 50 NOK, the eight 90 NOK, the night 120 NOK, while the richest got the bill reduced from 590 to 520 NOK.
Everybody got a lower price, and nobody got worse out than before. Outside the restaurant, however they started comparing what they had gotten out of it.
I only saved 10 NOK, while he saved 70, said number six, and pointed on the rich number ten. Yeah, right, said number 5, that also got ten NOK in reduced bill. "He is rich, but he still got seven times as much as me." - "Why shall always the rich get the most?" screamed number seven, that got 20 NOK in rebate.
"And we didn't get anything", screamed the four least fortunate together.
"This system exploit the poor!"
The situation soon got out of control, and the nine others beat up the richest. The next day he didn't come to dinner and they ate without him.
When the bill came they discovered something even more important. 520 NOK was missing!
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