Posted on 11/11/2011 6:09:39 PM PST by WesternCulture
Why are cities like Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm so expensive?
Simple answer:
- Why are you so poor?
To a 20 year old office secretary who works there, Stockholm is not expensive.
She can easily afford a 79 SEK sushi lunch and then do some shopping before it's back to work again.
She owns a chic French car and a €200 000 apartment and her dad probably owns two homes and a nice leisure boat as well as a summer house in the magnificent archipelago of that Nordic city.
There is nothing wrong with Scandinavian price levels.
The may ‘have’ all these things, but it isn’t because they are wealthy nor are things cheap. Sweden is leading the EU in individual debt at an alarming rate. Currently individual debt is 70% of Sweden’s GDP- double the level since 1970.
http://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap46n.pdf
Nice troll thread.
I’m not going there, so it is of no interest to me. Not going to NYC or Tokyo, either. I’m happy where I am. (And I’ve been a lot of places).
Isn’t there oil in the North Sea or something? I thought there was some kind of fossil fuel source that allowed them to get away with their welfare system, ala the gulf states. In other words, cheaters!
Thanks for sharing your anecdotes with us.
I was in Helsinki in August. Gasoline there was selling for $8.77 per gallon (E1.589 per liter). A 0.5 liter (16.9 oz.) portion of beer in a brewpub sold for about $10.50 (E7.50).
Meanwhile, 50 miles to the south, in perhaps the most liberty loving country in Europe, Estonia, pubs sold beer for less than $2.00 and gasoline was just above $6.50 per gallon, the cheapest in Europe.
Looking at “member since dates” you are the troll. Sorry, numbers don’t lie.
Hey WC, how’s Sweden today ?
IMHO...
The more small businesses a nation has the better.
Every small business has an owner in an excellent financial position relative to the average employee of a large company. They have flexibility as to their time and money. This is only really understood when one quits one’s job.
Something as simple as a single ice cream shop can be a very lucrative business.
Once the number of people in a town who are financially comfortable becomes a significant amount of the population of the town, the town itself becomes an “affluent” town. In an affluent town, even the poorest citizens of the town are much better off than the poor in a poor town. In fact, poverty just goes away.
Many people that come to America from other nations with very little money are smart enough to go right to the affluent areas, where if they work hard and save they can amass a surprisely large amount of money.
Sweden has very little underclass outside of Malmo. It's most nordic peoples who endeavor to create and work...it's a product of their culture and abilities.
While they have very generous welfare benefits, they have a fairly light load.
There will be those who say their debt is too high at the individual level and at government level...but they can afford it.
WTH are you posting about this for?
But all other things aside; after over thirty years of buying and selling internationally; NO one ever failed worse or pi**$d me off worse than the Swedes.
Like any european he may be irritating at times:) but I usually find his posts either entertaining or informative. He is no troll.
And then you follow your 20 year old Swedish secretary on her long lunch...
Dude.
Right there IS a long lunch, dinner AND breakfast.
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