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To: DoodleBob
On per capita basis, Sweden has a much lower infection/deaths rates than Italy Spain France Belgium and the UK and better than NY NJ Massachusetts and Michigan.
And they did it without lockdowns.
You wanna talk about the economy?
Okay. The US has lost a massive 33.5 million jobs since the lockdowns started. How many jobs has Swede lost even per capita?
Survey posted here on FR says a massive 50% of small businesses in the US will never come back.
20 posted on 05/12/2020 10:07:56 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe
I agree with the country comparisons. The Sweden national to US state comparison is a fruit salad but still apples to oranges. You need a state-equivalent municipality in SE. The closest State-equivalent in Sweden is a County. Their worst-off County, Stockholm, had a size-adjusted fatality total of 202,683 yesterday. That would make it the fifth worst State - behind Massachusetts but worse than Michigan- if it was in the US. So it's not NY, but it's not Wyoming.

Re: lockdown. That depends how you define the term. True, they didn't shut down school for kids under 16 (which is statistically a wise move). However, it did ban groups of 50+ people for arts and entertainment events including theatre, cinema and concerts, religious meetings, demonstrations, lectures, competitive sports, amusement parks, fairs and markets. The ban did not include gatherings in schools, workplaces, public transport, grocery stores or shopping malls, health clubs or private events. Further, the Swedish approach is based less on govt mandate and more on citizen trust of the govt: so yes, while the govt didn't shut down businesses, the citizens fell in line and at the request of authorities, universities have gone online, and travel is way down with Easter vacationing being rescheduled.

As for the economic and fiscal carnage, SE govt spending total of SEK317bn is comparable to their SEK300bn Coronavirus fiscal emergency package. Unemployment is expected to rise to 14% and GDP is expected to fall 7%.

I read that small business survey. It had a massive sample size of about 375 small businesses. Beyond the headline grabbing 52% of small businesses don't think they can last longer than 6 months (which is not exactly the headline's syntax), many small businesses are bullish about rehiring and other good things were revealed. But let's let the MSM control the narrative vs read for ourselves.

I'm not saying the US' choices were great (they weren't) but I'm also not going to slobber all over Sweden as many have chosen to do. SE made some wise moves - chiefly not shutting down schools for youths which had a positive ripple effect on parents not taking time off from work. I also believe the youths are statistically less likely to contract and die for the virus. People also willingly stayed away from people 70+ though Sweden had many people die in elder care facilities. Municipalities/Counties didn't shut down businesses either.

But Sweden has a largely obedient citizenry that relied on "facts" from their govt. Indeed, the political parties all agreed to basically stand down from politics. Ironically, one of the biggest shut downs in Sweden was its last coal-fired power plant - driven by its citizens' "fact-based" environmentalism. Had the govt chosen to shut down, there would hardly have been a peep from the MSM. And yet, despite the obedience and "herd immunity" the economy is still not great and their size-adjusted fatality totals are 20k+ higher than that in America.

Finally, this is not over. I suspect Phase II when/if we see a winter flare-up may come with cracks in Sweden as many citizens (though not the majority) aren't enamored with their approach...if their zeitgeist changes then people will dutifully fall in line. If it's a toss up between Sweden and her obedient citizenry getting some things right and America with 50 States getting many things wrong but we sort it out our own disobedient way, I'll take America.

48 posted on 05/13/2020 5:07:17 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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