>what difference does it make if there are some people who make 5000x what you do? <br> <br>The thing is that if we take 10000x of what I pay in from this guy in taxes, it'll hurt his living standard less than what my taxes hurt me. <br> <br>And what comes to reasonably well financially, the following criteria need to be filled before I'm satisfied: <br> <br>- The income needs to be sufficient enough for me to buy whatever food I want to eat, whatever clother I want to wear and be sufficient for other basic necessities. <br> <br>- High quality health care needs to be affordable for my budget, no matter what the illness or condition is. <br> <br>- I am provided for in the case of disability or disaster that prevents me from working. Whether the provider is an insurance company or the goverment is inconsequential(if insurance company, the fee is counted as part of have to afford basic necessities). <br> <br>The budget needs to be positive after all these costs so that I don't have to worry about not having enough money. I'm not out of whack buy much more grander than I need-type of person(like that envious neighbour of the Joneses who lives in America), so the budget will stay within reasonable limits. In the Finnish system, I can easily reach this level with 2000€/month brutto salary in my current situation. <br> <br>As long as my happy income level is reached, I have no problem with goverment using my tax euros for social programs. Let the money flow to the goverment so that it can take care for those less fortunate, that way I don't have to worry about what charities are trustworthy and what aren't. I trust the goverment to do more efficient work in the large scale than charities. After all, our goverment is the least corrupt in the World so trusting it is a pretty safe bet.