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

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

[Charles Henrickson]

I'll be in Sweden for a couple weeks in August, so thanks for this heads-up on something to look for.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That's spooky.

[Torie]

How much is it worth to live in safe cities? How much is it worth not to have to spend a ton on a vehicle to get to work? I suspect overall the standard of living for the median income earner is quite comparable. Granted, it you rake in the big bucks, there is no place like home.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I wonder what the crime rate is like in Sweden?...it must be very high because our leftists tell us that poverty = high crime.

[Kermit]

This describes the biggest economic cost of welfarism. It's not the high taxes, it's not the cost of regulation, it's not the idiotic governmental malinvestment. The biggest cost is the loss of economic growth.

Let me tell you, this study is really going to rankle the Swedes. One big reason, Europeans feel (not think) they are morally superior to us, is how they look down at how "we" treat Blacks in America. The Euros imagine them pounded down into poverty by greedy white capitalists. To have Black Americans wealthier than the Swedes is going to bug them, if the word gets out.

This study could help turn around the situation in the home of Social Democracy.

[Age of Reason]

They also have a major population bomb that's getting much closer to exploding and taking their entire system down with them. They already are taxed at close to 90% of their income and a Swede in the top 5% has $5,000 US in the bank and owns their home. The population is growing at less than replacement something like 1.25 to 1.5 per couple and continuing to drop. They have a fairly large population bubble of baby boomers that's just approaching the age that they will be leaving the work force. Since the populations behind them to support them in their old age is much smaller it would require a larger chunch of tax $$ to support them. When you are being taxed at 95% already it doesn't leave room for a tax increase. The only alternative is to cut services or perhaps get the old people to die off more quickly so they aren't a burden on society. If they take in a lot of immigrants to support their older people they loose their culture as the real Swedes become a smaller and smaller minority in their own country over time. No matter which way they go it's a no win situation.

Curiously, the life expectancy in Sweeden is higher than in the United States (despite Sweeden's socialism).

And if People in Sweeden are living longer, they must be pretty healthy.

And if they're so healthy, let them work longer. No problem.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Well then, I guess people on welfare here who don't work are really making it just fine. Just think of all of the days off they have. (/sarcasm) One reason the socialists in Europe are going to fail is because they have to compete with the U.S. and Japan...we work while they play and in the long run (maybe not so long), they will have to pay for the time they took off and the deadweight workers they won't fire...

[OK]

Many fools believed them and political 'scientists' went there to learn about their system.

Clinton's economic adviser, Dr. Laura Tyson, went to Romania to study their system in the 1980's and reported how wonderful it was there. Facts won't distract them from their Marxist dream worlds.

[MaeWest]

How are they compared to the French?

Perfumed.

[Torie]

Actually, the Swedish economy is pretty efficient. The economy is not really socialist, it is redistributionist. It is a complex topic, and complex economic subjects are ill suited to this forum.

[A. Pole]

Socialism never worked.

Maybe yes, maybe not. But the decline started after free-market reforms in the 1980's same was as in Soviet block in the 1990's. The prosperity in Sweden coincided with the social-democratic rule.

[Tribune7]

Swedes, usually perceived in Europe as a comfortable, middle class lot, are poorer than African Americans, the most economically-deprived group in the United States, a Swedish study showed yesterday.

Ha HA

If Sweden were a U.S. state, it would be the poorest, measured by household gross income before taxes, Bergstrom and Gidehag said.

Ha HA

If the trend persists, "things that are commonplace in the United States will be regarded as the utmost luxury in Sweden," the authors said.

So much for the socialist, Godless, pro-abort, open marriage paradigm.

[facedown]

Re: Your analysis.

Not only all of that but of every three dollars of gov't dole-outs, one of them is borrowed!

(according to P. J. O'Rourke, "Eat The Rich")

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

The funny thing is that you are looking at this one snap shot of time and coming to the conclusion that less work equals higher standard of living...actually, the only thing that increases the standard of living is an increase in productivity. Think of the EU socialists as a farmer who was blessed with some huge bumper crops in previous years. He starts getting lazy and decides to only farm half as much land because he has all of this extra food stored away from the previous years. Of course his life quality is high...until he runs out of the food he had stored from previous years...Europe will run out of their stored up food sooner rather than later. You'll see it in your life time if you are in your 40's.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

"complex economic subjects are ill suited to this forum."

Really? Well, your high brown approach is also ill suited for this forum. You'd obviously be surprised at the wealth of knowledge and the collective degrees of FReepers. Give us your best shot.

[Age of Reason]

I don't know how it is in Sweeden, but if crime is anything like in Norway, I'd be willing to trade a host of U.S. luxury gadgets just to be able to walk the streets and raise a family in safety.

Norway is so safe that Norwegians leave kids in strollers on the sidewalk while the parents enter restaurants for a meal, and no one thinks anything of it.

That kind of peace of mind is a greater luxury than $200 sneakers.

And speaking of luxury items, what about Sweedish blondes? Nothing wrong with them babes an attitude adjustment wouldn't fix.

[Arioch7]

Is there a difference? In real life, not some idealogical semantics.

As for the French, they have one of the top tax rates for the EU and among the lowest per capita income.

As a matter of fact, I just witnessed Chirac saying what I posted above live.

Even he admits it although I do not think he actually will fix it if he gets re elected.

It is much like the people in South Dakota who are Conservative in general but vote for Daschle anyway. They REALLY think he wont take thier guns away... LOL!

[Clara Lou]

That word economically-deprived is what rankles.
I went to an induction ceremony for the National Junior Honor Society Thursday. Out of 72 students with an average of 92 or higher, only one was black. We had numerous Hispanic students and many white in the group. Just an observation.