Study discovers Swedes are less well-off than the poorest Americans

Reuters via Haaretz ^ | 5/4/2002 | Reuters

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #23

As for car, the downpayment of your car will be easily swallowed up by what Swedes will be paying for all expenses from groceries to computers. American big city have definitely high crime rate, Swedes are catching up fast. They have serious youth violence problems as US's. Just they are not reported often here. The only advantange of such country is that it is more or less made up of one enthnic group with common culture and language which has more than a millenium of history. Such conditions acts as a strong glue to keep a country from socially disintegrating fast. It is nothing to do with their economic priorities.

[riri]

LOL. Two of the four people my husband worked with in Germany were mugged and his boss' house was actually robbed.Ofcourse, they blamed the muggings on the Turks and the robbery was the fault of the Polish immigrants..don't ya know?

And thanks but no thanks...I'll take the comfort of my SUV, alone with no one but Rush to listen to over the grim, crowded, spray painted, however pretty efficient rails in any European city...Life here is pretty good-light years beyond what Europe has to offer. IMO.

[stands2reason]

Actually the quality of life in a country increases with the less a person is expected to work.Strange blanket opinion for someone on a conservative forum, which is what this is. You don't seem very conservative to me.

[Age of Reason]

American big city have definitely high crime rate, Swedes are catching up fast. They have serious youth violence problems as US's.

Mind you, this is a question not a statement: In Sweeden, does the increase in crime correspond to an increase in immigration?

[jlogajan]

The economy is not really socialist, it is redistributionist.

A distinction without a difference.

[Torie]

I have been around this neighborhood a long time. No thanks. Granted, Nick Danger is awesome on monetary topics.

[Torie]

Actually there is a huge efficiency difference. And this bit about high taxation levels causing folks to work less is not proven. The Laffer Curve is a fraud. Of course at some level it does obtain, but not at the 50% level. But living in America with a high income is simply splendid. The pension rules are really quite amazing. I sock 25K a year into the pension, now up to 40K, along with my two partners, and we give the secretary about 2K. Isn't that grand?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #45

The article I first saw was about increase of violence among local youths. Actually, it was posted here a year or two ago. Recently I ran into another article on Muslim immigrant youths in Sweden, which said that they are becoming a part of crime wave. But as far as I know, the number of muslim immigrants are still small compared with France or Germany.

[Arioch7]

That statement is laughable. I am a partner in a business and I NEVER go home if there is work to be done! I hope you can see how absurd this is. In Europe, they DEMAND that the 35 hour a week worker gets payed the SAME amount as a harder worker. Gee, I wonder why they are not productive? LOL!

Of course, since the stinking liberals insist that I turn over my profits BECAUSE I worked my ass off, it kind of kills productivity, dont you think? Here I am, working EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK and they want to take any profit I make. If THEY were in power, why the HELL would I bust my ass to make as much as someone that has three day weekends and seven hour days?

My above statement is WHY the Eu is nothing comapared to us economically. It might not sound "Intellectual," but it is nevertheless the truth of the situation.

[jlogajan]

Actually there is a huge efficiency difference.

You are actually describing (or at least alluding to) different flavors and manifestations of socialism.

Pre-tax or post-tax socialism is still socialism.

[Torie]

Put whatever label you want on it. I am more interested in practical effects.

[jackbill]

They said they had chosen that measure for their comparison to get around the differences in taxation and welfare structures.

I suspect that the study would have shown an even greater disparity if they had included taxes and the Earned Income Credit!!!

[Arioch7]

Then read my post. If the liberals tax my profits at a level that will make it illogical for me to put my life into my business, I wont.

Is that simple enough for you? Or, more accurately I might ask.. is that TO simple for you? ;)

[jlogajan]

Put whatever label you want on it. I am more interested in practical effects.

It's not mere arbitrary label. It is an ethical category -- who do you owe your labor to. It doesn't matter ethically if it is pre-tax or post-tax -- if society determines who you owe your labor to, that is socialism. If you are free to exchange your labor (and therefore keep its fruits) as you see fit, it is individualistic capitalism.

[muawiyah]

Losing "real Swedes" is not, from the American perspective, a disaster.

In the 19th Century half the people in Sweden got on boats and came here. The place did not improve as a consequence.

[Torie]

Well that gets into the issue of how much of the tax cost you can pass along in price increaes, and how incentives are affected by tax rates. Those are empirical and not ideological questions. And if you shut down your business, how will you feed your family in a style remotely similar to what they have been accustomed?

[Torie]

Well now we are slipping into ideology rather than economics.