The original:
A more realistic facsimile:
Posted on 09/02/2010 6:56:13 AM PDT by tom h
I hope not. That would be a little creepy.
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Nailed.
That along with the sheer size difference, are things that are so conveniently ignored when we are continually reminded of what Socialist paradises these Scandinavian countries are.
“Stay at Home Dad” = Lazy Failure
You weren't given anything. You were giving nearly 60 percent of every kronor over about 70k, 25% VAT and paying $6 for a cup of coffee.
“That along with the sheer size difference, are things that are so conveniently ignored when we are continually reminded of what Socialist paradises these Scandinavian countries are.”
If your taxes do not go to keep a strong military, then a small country can buy the electorate with so called socialism, and hope that American soldiers will recuse their lazy asses if they are invaded...that is another “missing” element in the “look at the Swiss, they have socialism and it works” propaganda...THEY DON’T HAVE A MILITARY THAT CAN PROTECT THEM FROM A SWAM OF MISQUITOES, much less an armed invasion.
Thank You !!! Says it all.
Fine, I’ll accept that he’s happy over this. However, he loses any right to complain about the taxes in his country, or to complain when unemployment goes up due to the non-competitive economy.
I’d love to be a stay at home dad for the sole reason that I feel I don’t get enough time with my kids. I mainly get to hear what happened at home, don’t get to experience it myself. But I am currently capable of earning more than my wife, so I go to work and she stays at home. She could work too and we’d be fairly loaded, but kids come before things.
59.17! Un-freakin-believable! And a 25% VAT on top. He darned well better get ‘the bliss of 18 month paid leave’. Frankly, he’s getting robbed regardless of what he thinks. For those tax rates, there better be top notch social and public programs.
PJ O’Rourke also figured half-jokingly that the Swedes have it in their culture that working is necessary due to the fact that long ago if you didn’t work you froze to death. Thus not so many freeloaders, people who don’t ever intend to work, on the system. At least this guy plans to go back to work and be productive when the leave is over. We have a partial welfare system, and our permanent freeloaders probably suck as much money as their entire full welfare system.
Sweden also has a 25% VAT for most things, and 12% for food. Additional taxes on other things like alcohol are extremely high. Overall, taxes are about half the GDP, and the US is quite a bit lower than that.
You are exactly right about the economic advantages our magnificent military has provided to the condescending Eurosocialists.
“Cowboy” this, MFers.
It is poetic justice though, that even the US Armed Forces can’t save them from their own weak, non-judgmental, cultural relativism, which is allowing Islamic scum to destoy their societies from within.
>>Isn’t he and his wife paying for someone else that is doing the same thing?<<
Therein lies the idiocy of that type of system. The people are too stupid to realize that they pay for the time off anyway. The huge taxes they pay is so someone else can use what they worked for. The problem with that is that instead of getting 100% of the benefit they lose what the government keeps because of there cost to administer the whole thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I guess there’s some stuff in life, that some people don’y mind paying for.
See curb crawlers at Home depot.
The original:
A more realistic facsimile:
If Swedes were 100% more productive than Americans then your analysis would be spot on, but with all their other benefits (including, I expect, a 35-hour work week) I expect their productivity is fairly low.
Great benefits, but cars cost 100% than in the US because of taxes, and if they had to fight, they couldn’t afford a standing army large or well-equipped enough to beat the Swedish military of Napoleonic times. Not only because there are no taxes left to give but because the men and women have been sissified into complacency and dependency.
Such is the impact of “free” single-payer health care, generous benefits, and total government dependency.
Give me the good ole USA anytime.
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