Posted on 03/18/2011 1:09:35 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Edited on 03/18/2011 5:52:25 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
I grew up in Socialist Sweden, an ambitious little nation shaped by Lutheran ideals attempting to become the perfect nanny state.
This model failed big time around 1990 and most Swedes of today, whether they are Liberal vegans, soccer pros or SAAB driving engineers would probably admit so too.
An uncompromising Viking will to survival and the widespread strength within people to admit national failure (it's harder than you think) is of major importance behind present GDP growth figures of 7.3%.
My Gothenburg is today a prosperous city where Sassicaia (a great Tuscan wine) and single malt whisky flood the sewers.
We can afford to live like pigs and drive around in expensive Volvos, Beamers and Audis.
It wasn't always like that.
Maybe, there's a difference concerning mental attitudes of cities that go under economically (like Liverpool, Detroit and Naples) and those who survive.
I'm 41. Just the other day, I was routing about in one of my closets and found this 1982 Gothenburg punk record I completely had forgotten on.
Read/listen to these 30 year old lyrics written by a young unemployed European refusing to surrender to the gloom and misery surrounding him (link to the music below).
My attempt at a translation (listening to the music is probably a much better idea):
"YOUNG AND MANY
I'm sitting here in my room mute in all my tears feels like a rope hanging around my neck
I can't get no job I drink too much beer My life is just a big screw up
Ch:
But one fine day, I'LL SHOW THEM! I'LL SHOW THEM! My mind is afire with HATE, HATE!
They're closing down places where young people hang and you you can't get a straight answer from anyone Having a look around doesn't exactly get you in the right mood
But I just wonder why some of us are left behind If things go wrong, there are more to blame than one
Ch.
Is this the fault of human nature or the "system"? So many of us are involved in this failure But WHATEVER the cause, we will NEVER surrender
'cause we are:
Young and many!
Young and many!
Young and many!
and innocent to this mess!!
Ch."
My comment to this song:
- If I were a manager of some sort at Volvo back in 1982, I would have hired this guy and all of his friends instantly! (- And this is exactly what happened all over the World when Reagan lifted World economy three decades ago).
It takes off in a somewhat depressing mode, but don’t worry - you’re in Gothenburg, Sweden:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtkNK1tavQQ
“Maybe, there’s a difference concerning mental attitudes of cities that go under economically (like Liverpool, Detroit and Naples) and those who survive”
To be frank, the ones that survive are ones filled with:
Self respect
Self confidence
Self discipline
NOT:
Self esteem
Feeling like an entitled aristocrat
Paying attention to feelings and not facts
WC, do you think that Sweden will begin to dissolve the welfare state or keep propping it up?
I personally think that thye will expel all the unskilled immigrants, if only to save their welfare system from collapse.
Every nation that has experimented with socialism knows that it is an abject failure yet the Rats in the US insist that if we give up all our money and freedoms, we will be in paradise.
It goes in cycles. Too much prosperity can lead to liberalism coming back. The USA is going to be in a mess for a long time. I expect a major devaluation like the UK in the 1970s. The Swedes need to give the islamics a one way ticket back to the middle east.
I think the Swedish fellow may want to stop promoting how good things are in sweden. He will attract a lot of out of work europeans including Greeks.
In Renaissance Florence 500 years ago, construction workers, smiths, cooks and so on had scars all over their body.
Not at least their hands. By viewing the scars a man's hand featured, you could tell his profession; this was called “mano di gloria” - hand of honor.
Io ho un mano di gloria (I have a hand of honour). I have worked as a lumberjack, as a cook and as an assembly line worker among other things.
I regret nothing.
When are you guys going to purge and disinfect Malmo? That’s Sweden’s tumor, and if it isn’t treated, it will be terminal.
- Sweden is presently scrapping much of the nanny state and gearing up for the capitalist changes and challenges that our survival as a small nation requires. BUT, all the same, collectivism is in our blood.
Like a great (fictive) newcomer to America from Sweden said in a certain novel:
- Back in old Sweden, if you'd squeezed a sour fart out in the morning, it wouldn't have taken long time before it had echoed all around the village.
“When are you guys going to purge and disinfect Malmo? That’s Sweden’s tumor, and if it isn’t treated, it will be terminal.”
- Believe me, I’m doing what I can. But I can’t do it all alone (- but we are old and many, old and many..).
In order to comfort you, all of Malmö isn’t like the parts of the city that have become infamous.
Have a look for yourself:
http://www.hitta.se/LargeMap.aspx?start (choose Malmö)
How difficult is it to start a business in Sweeden?
Is there a lot of red tape and regulations?
Sources of investment capital or business loans?
Just wondering if the govt. does anything to encourage entrepreneurs.
- It has been made easier for sure.
Many foreign companies are investing in Sweden. The major drived this boom is the shift in IT-investments from Silicon Valley to Stockholm.
My advice:
- Forget about learning Swedish.
- Orientate yourself towards quality.
- Make the best of who you are during personal encounters, you know, hearty break weather and tell everyone present about your passion for Hungarian goose neck and plume-vodka dinners.
Correction:
The major drive behind this boom..
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