An American in

[Turbineguy]

Amsterdam.

Some thoughts about the 52% tax rate and health care in the Netherlands. The part about pumping out the polders is good. It sometimes seems in the U.S. if somebody does not have to pay for something, the cost does not exist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&em

"I spent my initial months in Amsterdam under the impression that I was living in a quasi-socialistic system, built upon ideas that originated in the brains of Marx and Engels. This was one of the puzzling features of the Netherlands. It is and has long been a highly capitalistic country — the Dutch pioneered the multinational corporation and advanced the concept of shares of stock, and last year the country was the third-largest investor in U.S. businesses — and yet it has what I had been led to believe was a vast, socialistic welfare state. How can these polar-opposite value systems coexist?"

[GoneOffShore]

1. I read this yesterday and would love to move to Amsterdam.

The whole "Socialism" argument falls apart when viewed from the writer's point of view.

[Turbineguy]

2. Consider that there are lots

of better places to live than Amsterdam. My cousin lives in Zwolle. He takes the train into Amsterdam in the late afternoon for a concert and is home around midnight.

[OutNow]

3. Home by Midnight

You can take a train to Amsterdam from just about anywhere in Holland and be home by midnight. I worked in Utrecht many years ago and never had a car. If I had a bit more money and courage to break out of the mold I'd go live in Den Hague.

Of course the U.S. could build a regional train system to make it easy to get around - yeah right.