Want lower income taxes and national health insurance? Move to Britain. As this chart shows, income tax and health insurance takes about 30% of a paycheck in Britain. But wait.. Don’t book your flight to Britain yet. There is also a 17.5% VAT tax (Ouch!), a sales tax on many goods and services, but food and children’s clothing is exempt from the tax.

Here in the good ole U.S.A, about 9.9% goes to state and local taxes, as reported by the Tax Foundation. Keep that in mind the next time you read or hear someone say “half of the population pays no tax”. What they mean is that approximately half of the population pays little or no Federal income tax. Social Security and Medicare tax take a 15% bite (as an employer, I can assure you that the employee pays the company half of the Social Security tax in reduced wages). Add in 10% for state and local taxes and a quarter is gone out of every dollar earned, before the Feds take their share. If you are a breathing adult, you’re probably a taxpayer.

A state by state comparison of median income from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows some surprising data. There are a number of other comparisons at this site.