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Chris, you are correct that the level of taxation on individual incomes varies but not to the extent you suggest nor do I think top tax rates are that significant in all of this. While many charge a higher top rate, Andorra's (No.1 on the list) tax is a fraction of the UK's, Iceland (No.2) levies a slightly higher tax than the UK but has no military at all. The difference, I think, lies in emphasis in that the UK's spending spectrum is differently balanced but perhaps also just as important is that all the best performers are small countries with no "leadership" ambitions, they also set priorities differently and are realistic. Smaller size permits much better oversight, less risk of waste and better focus - size really matters when you are trying to run an organisation, an authority/institution, a system, a country.
Having a culture of constantly questioning how things can be done better (which by definition means differently) helps a lot, whereas the burden of outdated thinking and chaotic management structures ("we have always done it like this, and after all, we are and always have been the world's best") really does not help, especially if/when you are inclined to fight change tooth and nail.
Were I asked to, I would vote for lots of change, more or less right through every institution/authority and system in the UK, including a higher top rate for individual incomes to match those in countries that do better than the UK so that people in the UK enjoy a better life than they do now. But I accept that, on the basis of evidence from past history to the present day, there is no real likelihood that, for the average individual (which is what these lists are about and reveal), the UK will become similarly promising (as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, etc......or Andorra) to live in during my lifetime. More is the pity, we are talking of very many people.