
The Swedish Model - olalonde
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104023432243468.html
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EgeBamyasi
What Johnny thinks fails to mentions is that since 2006(a major shift in the
parlament from socialism(No, not soviet socialism, rather "I dont care how
much money you have in your pocket, you are no difference from a poor man, NOW
GET BACK IN LINE!") to right wing(Well hello there Mr. Blue Blood, you see
that poor man in the line right at the front? Yeah him, well go take a piss on
him and take his place. You deserve it, you are after all rich!)) more and
more of the good things about Sweden have disappeared.

The leader of Alliansen, Moderaterna, have in the past voted against universal
suffrage(1904-1918), 8 hour workdays(1919,1923), the right for women to
vote(1919), two weeks paid vacation(1938), free lunches at schools(1946),
three weeks paid vacation(1951), civil union(1994)<br /> Thats not even the
tip of the iceberg, thats just a snowflake about to land on top of it.

Sweden used to be about social security, the need of the many outweigh the
need of the few, arts and giving anybody a fighting chance. That was the
Swedish model

Its getting colder, and its getting cold really fast. The Swedish model 2011:
getting rid of the expensive social security and lowering the taxes for the
wealthy.

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olalonde
Actually, what brought prosperity to Sweden was capitalism, not socialism.
Those good things you mention are good things in intention, not necessarily in
results.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENDE8ve35f0&feature=autof...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENDE8ve35f0&feature=autofb)

~~~
EgeBamyasi
Of course capitalism is a must for building up a welfare, it provides the
technical and economical foundation for a working socialist state, I´m not
going to argue about that.

How ever as a Swede I have seen the direct changes in the community due to the
parliament shift, not all bad of course. But when a country that used to take
care about its own, all of a sudden points the middle finger to those who is
in need I feel angry and disappointed and somewhat alienated from my own
country. I was brought up being told that tax money was going to hospitals,
schools, Unemployment benefits etc etc. because everyone has the right to
these things, and everyone has the duty to finance it. Now what is happening
is that we have the same tax rate as before, except if you are wealthy, then
the taxes have dropped or even disappeared, and more and more of the things
that where a right in Sweden is becoming a privilege for the people who don´t
need it and financed by the lower portion in the social ladder.

Oh, and now we have something called RUT-Avdrag. Its basically a thing where
the state pays 50% if you employ a maid or call in someone to clean your
house. It was to "create more work" and "to help ordinary stressed career
people". As it turned out it haven't created so many new jobs. And the average
middle class stressed career person would save more money by taking 4 hours of
work to clean by him/her-self than to rent a cleaning person for 4 hours. This
was one of the first things Alliansen did for Sweden after they took over the
parliament. Oh yeah, and wealth tax was quickly gone too.

Sure, there are some things that should be privatizationed, the railroad to
name one(it doesn't work, at all) but you don´t fuck with the health care and
the school system and the unemployment benefits to name a few(That made Sweden
the awesome country it was) to finance stuff such as RUT-Avdrag and getting
rid of wealth tax, and then tell the world "Hey! Look at us and our marvelous
economic model"

Also, the person who wrote the blogpost is a party member of Moderaterna witch
is responsible for all these changes, so its his view.

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willvarfar
It annoys me that he keeps saying 'Stockholm' when he means parlement.

The general gist, whilst he makes his bias clear, is fairly well put and
supported.

What worries me is the trajectory he wants to launch on:

"Stockholm has also introduced a law that empowers Swedes to chose their
providers for health care and other public services. This has led to a robust
surge in entrepreneurship within the health-care sector, where more
competition is bound to improve services."

Hmm. Right. That works really well elsewhere in the world, right?

We need to get more for our money in healthcare, but I think that comes from
effectivness at the regional level and not from inviting private companies to
run healthcare for profit.

The school system with 'free schools' - schools run by companies and for a
profit - has been, in my direct experience, despicable.

By all means privatise the various misc things that the country still has a
stake in. But run healthcare and education on a non-profit basis.

I would go off on a thing about pensions but that's a big ponzi scheme
whichever way you look at it. Its not like I or anyone else has an honest
answer.

/Swede.

