Ping to the Swedish Ping List.ping
My prediction is that this thread will soon be filled with pics of tall, slim, blond Nordic women.
just sayin. :P (and I'm sayin this as a chick...but I knowz my FReepers!)
For your quiz on Friday, I suggest the following term for the Vocabulary section: cultural homogeneity. This is the primary reason the Swedes could move back from the precipice and why the author’s basic point about the US likely following the Greek model before a total overhaul.
I remember reading a really interesting quote in a National Geographic article on Sweden, so it must have been 15 or 20 years ago, as I bet I dropped my subscription due to their blatant in-your-face Leftism around 15 years ago.
In the article, they were talking about Swedish socialism with a Swede, who basically said they were in a better place politically than we were, as they had realized they had taken the wrong path, and had reversed course, while we were still going full speed ahead. Even if at that moment, they were much more socialist than we were.
Looking back, he may have nailed it.
“The New Swedish Model”... Yes, I was expecting a cute blue eyed blond!!!
Excellent article. In response to the question, “Can we do it too?” I fear not as we have ourselves in a double bind with interest rates.
Banks and financial institutions cannot lend long term at the current low interest rates, thus virtually all mortgages, student loans, and many of the commercial loans are either flow through money from the government or government guaranteed. If we allow interest rates to creep up (as they should at the rate the Fed is printing money, it will take 100% of our tax revenue just to pay the interest on the outstanding debt. This is without considering Social Security and other unfunded or underfunded programs which we have already entitled to people.
Between the Fed printing money and propping up the government with loans, purchasing treasury securities to keep interest rates low, pumping many $$$ into a low volume stock market to prop up prices, and the government manipulating the cost of living index to keep interest rates low and wage increases checked....... WE ARE SCREWED!!!
We are a facade government waiting for the balloon to burst any day. There is absolutely no way to make it through this nightmare without a new government formulation that wipes the slate clean, takes away everyone’s golden egg laying goose, screws the debtors, and lets the taxpayers get back to their individual businesses.
Thanks for the ping. At the website the trend inticates that Sweden was as high as 17th in 2001 and so has fallen to 30th today. Who moved up and how would be an interesting article.
Thanks for the ping. At the website the trend inticates that Sweden was as high as 17th in 2002 and so has fallen to 30th today. Who moved up and how would be an interesting article.
The “Swedish model” works only if all the participants are Swedish models. When the other demographics begin to get mixed in there, then the scheme begins to break down, as all Swedes are not of the tall, Nordic female of exquisite beauty persuasion. There are the swarthy stocky people, the immigrants without a common culture with the rest of the Swedes, and the grumpy old guys who have seen life at its best and worst, but nobody listens to them.
Imagine how this could be applied here in the USA, with its diverse ethnic backgrounds, and less of a commitment to God, country and the family every day. Socialism would have less chance of working here in this country than it did in the Soviet Union, where they finally had to fold up their theories and tents, and surrender to the reality of the Universe, which is NOT compatible with the command economy model.
Command economies, though they appear to be “efficient”, finally have to resort to force to compel its individual members to conform to the needs of the commune, at the expense of their own personal wants and/or needs. If the individuals have the means to resist, or like Gandhi, the will to simply not participate, in sufficient number, the imposed system fails rapidly. Even if somehow, the system can be made to work by making the participation less onerous and a little more rewarding to the individual, like recognizing merit and endowing them with some authority to make at least some of their own decisions, still the sloth that is endemic in the greater numbers will eventually stall out the system.
Having too little order in the world is thought to be a negative factor, while having too much is regarded as just a total death cult. There is probably a fine balance between too much and too little, but so far, mankind has not been inclined to maintain that equilibrium. Of all the various ways to construct tribal law, perhaps the American Experiment came closest for a couple of hundred years, but now, whatever gyroscopes had been set spinning to stabilize the situation have burst loose of their moorings, and threaten to now tear apart the whole structure.
The balkanization of America is only one of several futures for the territory once known as “the United States of America”.
The inside story of the decline of socialism in Sweden began with why it had any seeming success at all.
Socialist systems are terribly inefficient, and always grow far beyond the ability to be self supporting, so usually they fail on their own unless there is a non-socialist system from which they can parasite. Eventually they grow beyond that as well.
In the case of Sweden, the nation was divided in half between the egregious spending of the socialists, and the huge profitability of the Swedish arms industry, one of the largest in the world.
True to form, the socialists increasingly taxed the arms industry more and more, until it was almost at the breaking point. There was just no more money to take from it.
So the socialist Prime Minister, Olof Palme, decided to nationalize the arms industry. Bad idea.
While the arms industry was willing to suffer for Sweden, it was not willing to die for socialism.
But “fate” intervened, and when Olof and Mrs. Palme were taking an evening walk, someone walked up behind them and put one or more bullets into Mr. Olof’s brain, then walked away.
Initially, a “usual suspect” was rounded up, tried and convicted of the crime, but eventually his conviction was overturned on appeal, and the crime remains unsolved.
But this signaled the end of much of socialism in Sweden, as the problem of no money remained. So the new, non-socialist government began cutting government, leading to the relative prosperity they have today.
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.I am disappointed, I expected some gorgeous blonde swedish model. But what do I find another story about socialism. I am going to saab!
Can we turn around the slide into socialism?
Of course we can - we have already done it. Ronald Reagan led the way and demonstrated to the world what really works economically. The Swedes, the Russians, the Chinese and many others took the lesson as their socialist economic policies hit the wall.
Unfortunately, turning back from socialism is a bit like making peace in the Middle East - its been done dozens of times. Those bastards never quit. Turning back socialism is not something that can ever be finished.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Swedish models just don’t stand out as anything special:
Can we turn around the slide into socialism?
Of course we can - we have already done it. Ronald Reagan led the way and demonstrated to the world what really works economically. The Swedes, the Russians, the Chinese and many others took the lesson as their socialist economic policies hit the wall.
Unfortunately, turning back from socialism is a bit like making peace in the Middle East - its been done dozens of times. Those bastards never quit. Turning back socialism is not something that can ever be finished.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Swedish models just don’t stand out as anything special:
Can we turn around the slide into socialism?
Of course we can - we have already done it. Ronald Reagan led the way and demonstrated to the world what really works economically. The Swedes, the Russians, the Chinese and many others took the lesson as their socialist economic policies hit the wall.
Unfortunately, turning back from socialism is a bit like making peace in the Middle East - its been done dozens of times. Those bastards never quit. Turning back socialism is not something that can ever be finished.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
Swedish models just don’t stand out as anything special:
