About the only hope left.
Posted on 02/27/2011 1:41:13 PM PST by WesternCulture
Many Americans of today enjoy a high standard of living, but unemployment is on the rise and no signs of economic recovery is in sight (please correct me if you think I'm wrong).
In order to make things worse, USA has also elected a certain Liberal named Obama for president.
By and by, America, a nation which still is admired by many over here in Europe (I'm Swedish by the way), a nation which once ruled the World, is becoming more and more like a backyard of today's international business scene.
Yes, it IS that bad.
I live in Gothenburg, home of (Chinese owned) Volvo Cars. We don't build the most luxurious, the fastest or most beautiful cars on Earth, but we build the safest and the most long-lived ones and we also are home to highly productive plants run by companies like Volvo Trucks (Swedish owned), Volvo Buses (Swedish owned), Astra Zeneca (Swedish-British), SKF and thousands of other profitable enterprises.
What do people do for a living where you live?
Please don't get me wrong. Like said above, many of us Europeans love and admire America. Monsieur Chirac obviously does not, but who really cares about whatever he said. Listen to people like me and Sarkozy instead.
By all means, American economy could be restored, but not by another Liberal "New Deal" or by quarrelling over health care reforms.
I'm not American, so I will refrain from telling people here which candidate to vote for in upcoming elections, but I WILL tell you why Scandinavia (Finland included), despite its puny population of 25 million inhabitants, today is the World's 10th largest economy measured by nominal GDP, has the highest salaries on Earth and is home to two of the 15 richest men on Earth.
Why are the Nordic Countries so successful? It's no mystery.
1. Lutheran work ethics - unlike young Japanese growing up today, our youth understands prosperity and success comes from hard work, not dying your hair.
2. We have begun scrapping Socialism and the nanny-state - other Western nations are busy learning how to implement these sickening societal concepts.
3. We pay our debts. When Finland received Marshall aid after WWII, the Finns said "Thanks a lot, dear Americans" and repaid the sum some few years later. Most other European nations didn't even say "Thank you".
4. The Nordic countries feauture a healthy business climate. If you invest here, your investment will pay off. There is law and order and company taxes are way lower than they are in, for instance, Germany or the US.
5. There is proper, substantial economic growth. We build first class factories, roads, bridges and railroads instead of financial castles in the air.
Read point 5. again and ask yourself why investors in the economic history of Man sometimes have felt attracted to objects like unknown, shady IT-companies, or why the Tulip Bubble evolved. I'd say one important underlying factor is that the profitability of the basic industrial sector, for some reason, was unnaturally low.
If this was the case in America (and elsewhere) some years ago during the financial crises, what could be done about it?
To begin with, USA could learn from Scandinavia. Not from Olof Palme perhaps, but from Ingvar Kamprad ("Mr. IKEA" and perhaps the richest man on Earth) and Conservative politicians like Fredrik Reinfeldt (Sweden's PM of today) and Anders Borg (Sweden's minister of finance) and our succesful multinationals.
In the early 1980s, before Norway struck oil, Denmark and Norway decided that the highest priority in terms of national economic policy ought to be getting rid of national debt. Today they are among the richest countries on Earth.
Sweden and Finland too have discovered the importance of this, but did so first about ten years later. Britain and America one day will..
The financial sector of America today is unhealthy basically because USA is failing in global free market competition. But just like my Sweden bounced back after the crises in the early 1990s and today boasts a higher annual GDP growth rate than any other OECD country, America could rediscover her proud tradition of hard work, manufactoring and invention.
Rescuing the banks is a step in the right direction and therefore I suggest you listen to an intelligent Swede like Bo "Mr. Fix It" Lundgren (see clip below).
Yes, we Scandinavians are in many ways very naive and Liberal, I admit that, but trust a guy like Bo Lundgren. He knows what he's talking about - unlike Wall Street and Obama.
No, this is NOT boring. This is about YOUR future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4nPRU0ZYRI&feature=related
Somehow, your system works for you guys. There is much we have 2 learn from u. But what on Earth are your countrymen doing, importing all those dusky fatalistic dullards who’d bring Sweden back 2 the 7th century?
I’m scared for the USA, but somehow also for Sweden. :(
They have a serious Muslim problem that he forgot to mention.
You say they have begun scrapping socialism. How so?
And what about the muslim timebomb in Scandanavia?
“You say they have begun scrapping socialism. How so?”
- Sweden has lowered income taxes a lot during the last decade.
Furthermore, our Conservative (dominated) government has begun selling off nationally owned companies like Vin & Sprit, producer of Absolut Vodka.
HERE’S MY TAKE...SEE WHAT U THINK..
It is reported that each year a quadtrillion trades are made in the US stock market ...why not assess a one dollar assessment on each of those trades for one year...
PRESTO. WE HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY OFF THE NATIONAL DEBT.
Any COMMENTS?
“a lot”
how much is a lot? Are they below 40% of total GDP yet?
And as to selling off nationalised entities - it depends. The point is not random privatization, but getting rid of excess baggage that would do better in the private sector, and remove a pensions burden. That is true for trains/transportation/etc, but I would need to see the case.
Out of interest, do you have the right to protect your family with a gun?
Also you didn’t reply about the muslim issue.
I’m glad you’re proud of your country, and that it’s going less in the wrong direction than it used to, but I’m not convinced you have the full picture about America. Europe has major systemic problems.
Do you suggest Scandinavia is in much better shape than France/Germany/etc?
“COMMENTS?”
Yeah - that’s how democrats think. Those trades would not be made. People would make much larger trades, and mainly would get their money the hell out of there as fast as they could. The loss would be orders of magnitude larger than the gain.
About the only hope left.
Considering Global GDP in 2009 was 58.228 trillion and the World Bank projects a 2.9-3.3 % rise in Global GDP in 2010-2011, I think you’re a little short of a Quadrillion.
A Quadtrillion I’ve never heard of.
Two things:
1. Neither political party here will cut the national debt enough to avoid an eventual default (repudiation) or complete de facto default (radically decreasing our currency, monetizing the debt., etc.). But many of our social programs exist for the purpose of refusing new, domestic business competition.
2. We need to do manufacturing, but global manufacturing interests are behind environmental and other regulations against new businesses (e.g., zoning ordinances against manufacturing, even in remote rural areas) and against self-sufficiency of working class people (regulations against property rights, feminist/anti-family social programs, etc.).
It would be better to let us fall, get real men in leadership in business, academia and government, and to rebuild.
I see nothing wrong at all with assessing a trading fee on stocks. Of course now that the New York Stock Exchange is about to be bought, won’t that make it impossible to tax the trades? If we did, they would just move off shore.
America has natural resources as well; oil, natural gas, coal, minerals of all kinds. Lawless government won’t let us get it out of the ground, however. You might be allowed one day and after you’ve made your investment, the rules change and everything you’ve put in is lost.
There are no longer property rights. Government can decide one day what was yours yesterday is theirs today. When you invest in the US, you make a risky investment.
I no longer invest in American companies of any kind. My investments are made in free countries, or at least countries that are less fascist than my own.
I no longer invest in American companies of any kind. My investments are made in free countries, or at least countries that are less fascist than my own.
- Sanity speaking.
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