Posted on 11/08/2007 4:59:05 PM PST by WesternCulture
Sweden:
"The Highest Standard of Living Anywhere"
The beautiful nation of Sweden has the highest standard of living in the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at namyth.com ...
Either way, sales taxes or corporate taxes, the people still get screwed because either way, they end up paying the taxes. If only people understood that higher corporate taxes just are a way to tax themselves, they’d reject liberal logic that says this kind of thing makes businesses ‘pay their fair share’.
If you go high sales taxes, the little guy gets screwed on everyday purchases (and worse on large purchases).
If you go high corporate taxes, the companies raise their prices to cover the higher taxes and the little guy winds up being screwed by the higher taxes on the companies (ie the higher taxes are ‘passed through’ to the consumer).
Of course they don’t teach this in schools anymore. I think some days starting a school for common sense for kids to supplement the absymal education they get in the public indoctrination centers.
- Yes, that pace we all agreed to, didn’t we? Most Americans as well as Europeans thought appeasement, diplomacy and UN investigations was the right way to go.
9/11 changed a lot of things around.
Suddenly, the American public wanted to see Saddam’s dead and a lot of Europeans felt the same way. Believe it our not, we view you Americans as OUR OWN BLOOD, because YOU ARE.
By today, a lot of European countries have participated with troops in the WOT. None of my family or friends is a victim, but soldiers from my country, Sweden, have died and in a larger sense, everyone who believes in freedom is under attack.
I can apologize on behalf of Europe for not giving you more support than we have done so far, as long as Europeans who have lost their lives in this struggle are excluded.
But I still believe the US rushed it out of prestige matters and the opinion back home.
On the other hand, together we will win this war and the ones who already have died will not have died in vain.
You are not alone.
“Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it may call upon them for help.”
“To prevent this, you would exclude socialism from entering into the making of laws? You would prevent socialists from entering the Legislative Palace? You shall not succeed, I predict, so long as legal plunder continues to be the main business of the legislature. It is illogical — in fact, absurd — to assume otherwise.”
from “Socialism is Legal Plunder”, read more here...
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G1428
Thanks to FReeper raygun for the link.
If you go high corporate taxes, the companies raise their prices to cover the higher taxes and the little guy winds up being screwed by the higher taxes on the companies (ie the higher taxes are ‘passed through’ to the consumer).”
- This is totally true, but only in a totally closed economy, an ‘autarky’.
In the case of Sweden, the Egalitarian culture calls for a cradle-to-grave kind of Socialism. On the other hand, Sweden has a very strong tradition of entrepreneurship, responsibility (as a part of a family, an inhabitant of a village or, alternatively, a town and finally, as a citizen), work ethics and a cultural ideal of ‘being a free man’, a self governing individual (feudalism never existed in Sweden and therefore, every farmer was a free subject that actually was running a business of his own).
Now, how to make the most out of a population with such a cultural background in today’s globalized, open world?
- Let them have their costly Socialism BUT let them pay for it themselves by high VAT/Sales taxes (and rather high income taxes) AND keep corporate taxes at low level in order to encourage investments. As Swedes are very productive and corruption is nearly unthinkable to them, economic growth is likely to occur. Competent businessmen will experience this environment as Klondike and whatever they demand of their workforce in terms of quality and quantity will be accomplished. The products, which often will be goods rather than services, will be easy to sell all over the world and huge profits will be made. However, the well organized Swedes will keep close track of the financial development of their employer and they will demand something in return for a job well done. The (export depending) companies originating from this kind of economy will become large (especially in relation to the size of the population) and so will the numerous investments be. Companies will do a lot of business with other companies because of the capital intensive structure of production which will mean a lot of VAT/sales tax incomes for the state, but as long as a fair share of the profits is left alone, the economy will grow steady.
In the US, this concept would probably NOT work as well as it does in Sweden and Liberals/Socialists who wish the US to ‘become’ like Scandinavia are plain morons.
The population of the US share some of the traits of the Swedish population, like their work ethics, but are less rigid, more individualistic, less of perfectionists and more bold. However, the main difference is probably that in terms of economical matters, collectivist perspectives are of much lesser importance in the US.
Furthermore, the US is not such an ‘open’ economy as Sweden, simply because it is so big and has such an overabundance of natural resources it doesn’t have to trade with foreigners to become prosperous. The US economy is even so powerful its currency is one of the two ‘world currencies’, something which involves both advantages and disadvantages.
So what tax model should the US employ?
- It’s not for me to say as I’m not American, but it seems like a good idea to keep the present one, more or less.
People will be working hard to achieve personal success and a lot of them will strike gold. The most successful parts of the population will inspire others and manage to make them feel they are part of a ‘winning team’ and this spirit will also produce a VERY large number of winners, even if ‘winning’ often will simply mean having a decent job, a well built house and a nice car.
People like most of the Americans have no need of genuine Socialism. However, they will demand things like well paved roads, a national defense, some kind of law enforcement etc and most of them will also agree to depart with some of their incomes in order to aid people who do not belong to the 90% of the population who are winners. A government of such a nation should probably forget things like high sales taxes or high income taxes, basically because these individuals think they have the right to keep (most) of what they earn and (in return) demand little of a helping hand from the government in their personal life. They will have a lot of money to spend, which means several companies will make a great amount of cash on their spending. In a context like this, a government could tax these companies pretty much, even more than in the case of Sweden and these businesses will still do well.
In the end, Capitalism is the only thing that works. But it might work in different ways.
“In a country like the US, most politicians are people who don’t fit in the ruling business elite of the nation (because of incompetence?)”
I think you understand them! LOL.
ROTLMAO!
WC; you've just shown us here the real progress of Sweden or (The Socialistic Paradise) by talking with a split tongue out of both side of your mouth!
To my knowledge, only a Swede, who loves status symbols better than anything, will show case his Volvo in Gothenburg looking for a parking pace and then take a bus to his final destination, excuse me for LOL!!
Why not ONLY take the bus in the first place like they do in New York???
FReepers, here is Sweden at its very BEST!!!
If you go high corporate taxes, the companies raise their prices to cover the higher taxes and the little guy winds up being screwed by the higher taxes on the companies (ie the higher taxes are ‘passed through’ to the consumer).”
Here you have the Swedish model, and furthermore the real mindset of the Swedish people from before the WWII, and it is still being touted today by the older Swedish population, who are worshiping the welfare state higher than Almighty GOD!
They also have a wide open door to let the muzzies into the country sucking lots of welfare kronors out of the Swedes pockets!!
25. Per Albin Hansson, 1932-36 and 1936-46 Politician (b. 28.10 1885; d. 6.10 1946) Social Democratic leader
Even though he was a politician all his life, from his early youth till he died as PM, he is often regarded as the greatest Prime Minster of the 20th century. He became a father figure to the entire nation during World War II. He kept Sweden out of the fighting and created an image about the welfare state that dominated Swedish policy for the rest of the century. When he died in a heart attack on his way home by tram, his party maintained control over the government for 30 years in succession. It makes the Swedish Social Democratic Party unique in Europe. The party keeping a steady support of about 40 per cent of the electorate within a multi-party Parliament. Hansson laid the foundation for that support.
26. Axel Pehrsson in Bramstorp, 1936 (June to Sept) Farmer (b. 19.8 1883; d. 19.2 1954) Farmer’s Party leader
The farmers and the Social Democrats co-operated after an agreement in 1933 about labour legislation and subsidies to the agriculture. The co-operation was broken before the general election and Pehrsson was appointed PM for the duration of the election campaign - three summer months. Therefore it was called the “holiday-cabinet”. After the election a coalition cabinet was formed between Social Democrats and The Farmer’s Party, with Hansson as PM and Pehrsson as Minister of Agriculture.
27. Tage Erlander, 1946-69 Politician (b. 13.6 1901; d. 21.6 1985) Social Democratic leader
Erlander was Prime Minister longer than anybody else in the Western World, 23 years uninterruptedly. He administered the legacy of Per Albin Hansson. The Swedish welfare state had no serious opponents in the Parliament. The taxes weren’t raised above the OECD average and the workers and the capitalists co-operated smoothly ("The Swedish Model"). Sweden competed well on the world markets, since the country’s industry hadn’t been destroyed during the World War II.
28. Olof Palme, 1969-76 and 1982-86 Politician (b. 30.1 1927; d. 28.2 1986) Social Democratic leader
Olof Palme was a highly controversial politician in Sweden. As Minister of Education in 1968 he demonstrated against the United States with the North Vietnam ambassador to the Soviet Union. He radicalised the Social Democratic agenda, retreating from the co-operation legacy of Per Albin Hansson. The taxes were rapidly raised. They were soon the highest in the free world. In order to take over private companies the Party advocated wage-earners’ investment funds, financed by new company taxes. During his time in opposition Palme took an active part in international politics on behalf of the Third world. He return to office, but a still unknown killer assassinated him on a street in Stockholm.
29. Thorbjorn Falldin, 1976-78 and 1979-82 Farmer (b. 24.4 1926) Centre Party leader
Unlike Olof Palme, who was born an aristocrat, the Conservative opposition leader was a farmer with a modest, if not poor, upbringing. He was a good old and honourable politician who travelled to the capital from the fields and deep forests in the North of Sweden, ”with dirt under his nails”. He strongly apposed the socialism of Palme and won the historical election of 1976 when the Social Democrats lost the PM office for the first time in more then 40 years. Falldin’s Centre Party had been transformed from a farmer’s party into a ”green” party which opposed the use of nuclear power. This created conflicts with the Conservative and Liberal Parties in Falldin’s Coalition Government, which resigned, but came again after the next election. Palme eventually took the office back after the 1982 election.
EU vs. USA:
http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/11/sweden-mississippi-if-sweden-joined-us.html
If Sweden left the EU and joined the U.S. we would be the poorest state of America. Using fixed prices and purchasing power parity adjusted data, the median household income in Sweden in the late 1990s was the equivalent of $26,800 compared with a median of $39,400 for U.S. households - before taxes. And then we should remember that Sweden has the world´s highest taxes.
The Swedish Research Institute of Trade, which conducted the study, underlined that African Americans, who have the lowest income in the United States, now have a higher standard of living than an ordinary Swedish household.
Between 1870-1970, Swedish growth was the highest in the world, next to Japan’s. In 1970 Sweden was the fourth richest among the OECD-members, after USA, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
After more than 30 years of high taxation and an expanding welfare state, Sweden is not the 4th richest OECD-country any longer, but the 15th. This hurts the least well off most. Between 1980 and 1999, the gross income of Sweden’s poorest households increased by just over 6% while the poorest in the U.S. enjoyed a three time larger increase.
Bottom Line: Unless you think that Mississippi and Michigan represent ideal economic models of growth and prosperity, you probably shouldn’t think about Sweden as economic nirvana.
- danamco, you really got me there.
But you are somewhat mistaken in this respect;
“To my knowledge, only a Swede, who loves status symbols better than anything”
- It’s the Bavarians and the Baden-Würtembergers who polish their cars all evening long. The majority of Swedes don’t bother to wash their cars much (I admit to be like that myself).
“Bottom Line: Unless you think that Mississippi and Michigan represent ideal economic models of growth and prosperity, you probably shouldn’t think about Sweden as economic nirvana.”
- Mississippi has more of successful multinationals than Sweden and therefore, most people in Mississippi drive Volvo V70’s and such cars.
In today’s America? I’d say Swedes and their govt have more respect for religion. Of course, I haven’t been there for about 10 yrs now. The govt actually financially supports the church. Hows that?
Hey, a content free response, a poor analogy, and a juvenile attempt at wit all rolled into one. Good work, Tabasco! Fortunately, you're not bright enough to insult me (or my wife). Thanks for playing!
Denmark's extreme right beefs up anti-immigrant line ahead of vote Nov 10 11:07 PM US/Eastern
The Danish government's far-right ally in parliament has made immigration, especially by Muslims, its main target of attacks ahead of next week's legislative elections.
In its election campaign for the November 13 poll, the Danish People's Party (DPP) blasts Muslim immigrants for not respecting Danish traditions and for taking advantage of the Scandinavian country's generous welfare system.
One poster shows a woman wearing a Muslim headscarf withdrawing money from a cash dispenser machine drawn with the logo of the welfare benefits office, with the caption: "Make demands on the foreigners. Now they must contribute!".
Another shows a group of veiled women under the headline: "Follow the country's traditions and customs or leave."
In a third poster, the party makes reference to the crisis sparked by the publication of caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper two years ago.
The global row that followed lasted months and included attacks on Danish embassies, the burning of the country's flag and boycotts of its products across the Muslim world.
The poster shows a hand drawing the Prophet Mohammed, over the words: "Freedom of expression is Danish. Censorship is not. Defend Danish values."
Therkel Straede, a Holocaust expert at Syddansk University, compared the party's tactics to those used by the Nazis during World War II.
"The DPP is not Nazi, but its ideology, with its xenophobic extreme nationalism, resembles Nazism, since it tries to stamp out a minority," he said.
Two days after the government called snap elections for November 13, the DPP presented a series of law proposals aimed at Muslim immigrants, including bans on using the Muslim headscarf in public places and on special worship areas for Muslims in the workplace.
The party also called for a ban on halal meat in daycare centres and on special locker rooms for Muslim schoolgirls.
"There is every reason to tighten the screws, because Danish values are under pressure," said deputy head of the party Peter Skaarup, insisting that "these demands will at the end of the day be beneficial to the integration of immigrants."
During the general elections in February 2005, the DPP won 13.3 percent of the votes, or 24 seats, making it the third-largest party in parliament and allowing it to wield significant influence on Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal-Conservative coalition government.
But in Sweden, they NEVER have had the cajones to stand up to the influx of people from outside their country!!
Sweden's policy has always been "wishy-washing" to take a firm political stand, whether in WWII or today !!!
W.C. Sweden is catching up to your "Socialism WORKS!"
Swedish Mafia: fighting a losing battle
Sweden is not a country usually associated with mafia-style gang crimes. But over the last decade a new breed of organized crime has sunk its claws into Sweden, leaving the authorities several steps behind.
• Reported cases of extortion have more than doubled in ten years and police estimate that there are now fifty criminal gangs around the country, compared to just a few ten years ago. Frustrated at finding themselves on the back foot, police now want the Minister of Justice to establish a 'Swedish FBI'. Even though there is no Cosa Nostra or Yakuza operating in Sweden, around a dozen criminal clusters are believed to exist in the country, competing with each other over market shares and using deadly violence to achieve their goals.
Gothenburg restaurant owners Masoud and Shahnaz Garakoei last year became the public face of the victims of gang crime. Their ordeal started in 2003, when two men walked into their Persian restaurant in the Hisingen area and demanded protection money. “We are Bandidos. We own Hisingen and we are here to protect you from the Russian mob. Pay us and don’t tell this to anyone,” the men told Mr Garakoei.
The restaurateurs decided that they had no choice but to pay the 120,000 kronor the gang demanded. But when the gangsters returned a year later and demanded more, the couple decided they would not give in to further threats. Mr Garakoei went to the Bandidos' headquarters and told the gang's president that he would not pay. He then went to the police, and seven Bandidos members were arrested, tried and jailed.
The couple's bravery earned them the accolade 'Swedes of the Year' from Fokus magazine, but in the end even the Garakoeis decided they couldn't take any more. They shut up shop in February, saying the financial and psychological pressure of enduring extortion and death threats had become too much.
The Garakoeis' story is by no means unique. A new book “Svensk Maffia” ('Swedish Mafia'), describes how biker crews such as Hells Angels, Bandidos and Outlaws have established themselves in 25 cities, from southernmost Sweden to Luleå in the north. And in larger cities police witness the growth of suburban gangs, for example Fucked For Life, Original Gangsters and Naserligan.
In 1990, the Hell's Angels established a chapter in Skåne, making them the first international biker gang in Sweden. Soon after the Angels' arrival on the Swedish scene, media started reporting that the gang was involved in criminal activities. A biker war developed between rival gangs in southern Sweden. Since then, organized crime has been a fact of life in Skåne and in Sweden as a whole. "Sweden is no longer like it was in the idyllic fifties. Today companies need to watch out for extortion, fraud and even kidnapping. As an enterprise you have to prepare for the worst, you should assume that you are a target", says Tommy Svensson, head of security at Svenskt Näringsliv, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise
Mainly these threats are aimed at companies situated in what the police describe as the grey area between legitimate and illegal businesses, where owners do not feel comfortable asking for help. But even large scale, well established firms have been hit.
In 2005 Fabian Bengtsson, president of electronics giant SIBA, was kidnapped and kept in a soundproof wooden box for three weeks. His ransom was set at 50 million kronor. Darko Sokacic, a 43-year-old Croatian, who was found to have masterminded the plot, was sentenced to ten years in jail for kidnapping and attempted blackmail. High-profile convictions like this have led some to imagine that since the Berlin wall was torn down, criminals from former communist countries have flooded Sweden.
This is a common misconception, says Henrik Tham, criminology professor at Stockholm University: "Crimes in Sweden are carried out by Swedes. The majority of criminal activities still revolve around alcohol, drugs, gambling and sex-trade, even though extortion and threats towards witnesses and police have increased". Indeed, Sweden has been pretty good at exporting its own, home-grown gangsters.
One of the first home-grown criminal networks to use mafia techniques such as threats and violence as a business concept was the Uppsala Mafia. Having started out by selling steroids at the gym, the gang eventually achieved worldwide notoriety after luring international companies into investing in Gizmondo, a company that built on the back of a handheld gaming console that barely reached the market.
In total, Gizmondo was drained of 1.6 billion kronor. The scam got international attention last year after Stefan Eriksson, one of the crew's top dogs, split his seven million kronor Ferrari Enzo in half, crashing into a telephone pole in Malibu, California while driving at 250 kilometres per hour.
Police and criminologists agree that criminal gangs have become more common but are at a loss to explain why. In times of economic growth crime rates also rise, but the underlying factors have yet to be explained. "Maybe it's simply because more people like to be in gangs. There hasn't been any studies done on this", says Henrik Tham.
The increased power of the Swedish mafia poses a tough challenge for the police. Many officers admit they are powerless in the face of the gangs' ruthless techniques. "The criminal networks have multiplied, and in a sense the authorities can't protect the public," says Thomas Servin, chief of the Skåne police intelligence unit. "A restaurant owner or construction company pushed for a monthly envelope will be forced out of business if they turn to the police. There will be threats or retaliation, and today's witness protection programs are not sufficient", says Servin. With the police powerless to help, companies are being forced to take their own measures to deal with the problem: "The security industry is growing," says Tommy Svensson.
"It is now also common to recruit a head of security to deal with these questions. If an employee discovers phoney invoices for example, the security expert will report to the police. Then the employee won't risk being threatened," he says. The best hope for the authorities to take back the initiative is to strike at the roots of the criminal enterprises, says Bengt Svensson of the National Criminal Investigation Department. But, he says, this will require cooperation over regional and national boundaries. "We need to cooperate on a national basis since criminality no longer is limited to regions, or even countries. Then we would be able to strike towards the foundations of these gangs, not only individuals caught in the act of stealing or robbing", Svensson says.
These calls have now reached the top of the police force. National Police Commissioner Stefan Strömberg is pressing the government to approve the foundation of a 'Swedish FBI' which would be allowed to operate anywhere in Sweden. There has so far not been a formal response from the government, but many police dealing with organized crime hope this idea will help them turn the tables on Sweden's gangs.
Thanks for pointing this out.
While organized crime always has existed in Sweden, it has escalated during the last 15 years.
First, we have the biker gangs. Hell’s Angels and Bandidos are the two most powerful ones.
Orgiginal Gangsters is a large gang that consist mostly of immigrant youth from Stockholm and Gothenburg suburbs (and some other cities). Many of the members have grown up together. In terms of ethnicity of the criminal gangs from the large city suburbs in general, it is common that they have parents from Latin America (predominantly Chile), the Muslim World, non-Muslim parts of the Balkans or from non-Muslim parts of Africa, alternatively one Swedish parent and one from any of these three parts of the world.
Brödraskapet is a well-known gang that recruit former inmates from Swedish prisons. They have some ties to Biker gangs.
Another dominant group in the field of organized crime in Sweden is the various criminal gangs with roots in the Balkans.
There are also some Baltic and Russian gangs that operate on Swedish soil.
Another type of criminal activity, apart from ‘Mafias’, on the rise in Sweden is football hooliganism.
I recently heard that there today are well developed connections between gangs into severe criminal activities in Sweden and hooligan ‘firms’ (firmor). This is particularly worrying as the football hooligan firms mostly consist of very young individuals.
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