...I am still thinking whether it's better to live in America compared to west Europe, or not. In Europe you pay so much taxes, you can't really collect any wealth. The more you work, the more you earn, the more taxes you pay.
you are 100% correct, I agree with you on this fully, I was living and working (actually am) in few west Europe countries and all are same because as you say "...The more you work, the more you earn, the more taxes you pay..." and all what you are paid for overtime they collect in higher taxes, we even try to not do any over hours if one work on a contract somewhere in hourly wage because there is no sense, when you do it tax is so high that you will get per hour even less as for regular 8 hours, despite you see on income check that it was paid with 200% bonus for Sunday for example
so yes i agree "In Europe you pay so much taxes, you can't really collect any wealth" - situation is worse with each new year, still 20 years back it was different, especially for low-middle class in regular 8 hours job
Just because it happens sometimes, doesn't mean that there should be no local board merit sources at all. After all, local board merit sources rarely constrict themselves to their own local board, at least from what I have noticed.
Merit sources are especially necessary in local boards and Polish is the best example of what can happen when they're gone