When the Muslims take over in about 2025 I wonder how well things will run.
Sweden’s population is only 9 million. Less than twice the size of the Houston Metro population.
AAU ball.....
Good piece. I wish I knew more about the keys to Sweden’s success. What I see is this: a small fairly homogeneous population in which education is prized as is technical excellence. You are lowering your debt.
You seem to have a government that is fairly enlightened with respect to the needs of trade and manufacturing. Still, it looks like a managed economy (at least from outside), so I wonder what are the structural barriers (or moral barriers) that prevent it from becoming Labor Britain.
You say that the country has a strong work ethic, and from outside it looks like it, but that seems like a contradiction in a country with a strong social safety net; the latter seems always to erode the former.
My twin prophets are John Locke and Von Mises so I am always suspicious of any managed economy, (and any strong welfare state) and yet yours seems to work. So, how do you account for that? Why are you not Greece? (Or Detroit?)
The true test of any economic model, in my opinion, is consistency over a long period. I remember when the Japanese model was touted as the wave of the future, but then the ‘90s came and washed it away.
Unfortunately, for decades Swedish governments have played along with this game of illusion and self-delusion - instead of spreading the truth of what really has made Sweden successful:
Capitalism, a culture of honesty and mutual trust, high class engineering, traditional work ethics, proper education, respect for the law and business skills.
I found this interesting but as I read the article my mind kept returning to a video I saw last year. I tracked down the video to see if I rememembered it correctly.
Malmo
How’s marriage, though.
Last I read not that many Swedes are getting married any more, just shacking up.
And homo-rights are pretty entrenched. Not a good sign for civilization.