Posted on 08/01/2009 7:49:40 AM PDT by WesternCulture
A small parish (församling) in the Östermalm neighbourhood of Stockholm has more money to spend than it has people to spend it on.
The parish has now petitioned government authorities to allow it to amend its regulations so that money can used to help poor people living in other Stockholm parishes.
Fewer than 100 individuals in the Hedvig Eleonora parish in Östermalm receive social assistance. As a result, the parish has now sought permission from the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet) to amend its regulations in order to be able to direct its resources towards those in need, reported SVT television.
The parish is one of the smallest in Sweden, but also one of the richest with several major foundations that provide money to those in need. Despite the fact that there are so few residents receiving social assistance in the area, the parish receives around 1,000 applications for assistance per year. But the parish has been forced to deny many such requests because those applying don't live in Hedvig Eleonora.
The parish has submitted a petition to Kammarkollegiet in order to be able to amend its regulations so that money can also be distributed to other Stockholm parishes.
Small wonder most people on Earth, including we Swedes ourselves, view Sweden as a very strange place.
A Swedish economist once said to Milton Friedman “I don’t know why you have poverty in America-In Sweden we have next to none”
Friedman said “That’s funny, hardly any of the Swedes who have come to America are poor, either”
Oh wait we can't have that.
Perhaps Swedes don’t encourage numerous out of wedlock children, they are practical people. I wonder what their poverty rate is.
That was the whole thing-with their culture and values, they’ll succeed wherever they go.
This happened in Boulder, Colorado, several years ago. City land-use policies had literally halted the construction of new housing. Poor (and middle class) people could no longer afford to live there. So the city government decided to build a bunch of low-income “affordable” housing units in an attempt to lure poor people back to Boulder, at the expense of Boulder taxpayers. A classic lose-lose scenario, brought to you by squish-head liberals running a college town.
- That's a very racist comment isn't it:)
Seriously speaking, I guess that response ought to be interpreted as objecting that Swedes have superior work ethics in relation to most other ethnic groups (and therefore, the nanny state concept, built on high levels of taxation works in Sweden while it is bound to fail in most other societies) or? By the way, Groucho Marx once said something like (please pardon my English); “When I first got in touch with really rich folks, got invited to fancy cocktail parties and such things, I expected them to drown me in jewels and all other sorts of gifts. However, I quickly learned that generally speaking, rich people never give anything away. That's why they're rich.”
Rich inhabitants of Stockholm, evidently, are trifle different:)
“That’s funny, hardly any of the Swedes who have come to America are poor, either”
Here is the explanation (according to an Irishman and a Finlander who is the father of the current Finnish Prime Minister):
IQ and the Wealth of Nations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations#National_IQ_estimates
Note that Sweden has a higher mean IQ than Finland and Russia!
“City land-use policies had literally halted the construction of new housing.”
- That seems to be the case in many parts of the industrialized world.
Over here in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, local politicians have been extremely successful in preventing construction of new housing despite the fact that young people (not only from Somalia) are desperate to come here as we boast a very healthy business life and two large universities.
According to the local government, the construction of new houses threaten to increase global warming and so on.
Every nation deserves to feel pride, but none over its politicians.
Let’s forget about national wealth for the moment and address the issue of the connection between IQ and the inclination to bash other countries.
IMO, these stats perfectly explain why the French (average IQ score 98) and the British (average IQ score 100) often claim Americans (average IQ score 98) to be stupid, don’t they?:)
“IMO, these stats perfectly explain why the French (average IQ score 98) and the British (average IQ score 100) often claim Americans (average IQ score 98) to be stupid, don’t they?:)”
I actually was just teasing you with my last. I compared Sweden to Finland and Russia simply because they are your neighbors.
:)
Not enough poor? Let’s send ‘em some of ours!
- I was perfectly aware of that.
The problem is that I'm not in an overly serious mood for the moment:)
I don't know how much you know about our corner of the world, but here are some basic facts about how Finns, Russians and Swedes view each other;
- Finns deem Swedish men “gay”
- Swedes view Finland as a second rate ice hockey nation
- Swedes, as well as Finns, view Finns as alcoholics
- Russians view Swedes as inhabitants of a small, friendly nation
- Swedes view Russians as Sweden's eternal, sworn enemy
- Finns consider Russians to be completely useless people, especially as far as soldiering goes
- We Swedes awarded a certain Finnish writer a Nobel prize in literature for portraying the Finns as barbarians who like to fight each other with knives in saunas
- Russians don't seem to have much opinions at all regarding Finns (maybe they are still wishing to forget what happened some decades ago, I don't know, alternatively most Russians don't know were Finland is even though some living alongside the border to Finland do)
Not especially amusing or strange perhaps, but rather true
I'd say and no, personally I do not hate any other ethnic group as a whole.
Regards!
“Not enough poor? Let’s send ‘em some of ours!”
- They’d probably turn into upper middle class Swedes within a year or so (sarcasm)
Obama´s victory was good at least for one reason. now we can discuss IQ and the wealth of nations
Indeed!
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