

Swedish aid money to Tor, online activism - jacobr
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.svd.se%2Fnyheter%2Finrikes%2Fbistand-gar-till-hemliga-natprojekt_7232403.svd&act=url

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Yrlec
Sweden is a really amazing country! In addition to being a well functioning
democracy it also has these features:

* A flourishing market economy that has created everything from IKEA and H&M to Spotify and Skype.

* Free health-care

* Free college education

* Low corruption

* A well functioning justice system (practically no patent trolls!)

It certainly has it's problems but compared to other countries it is truly
amazing how it has managed to balance social well-fare and capitalism.

Disclosure: I am Swedish.

~~~
forza
Sweden is outstanding if you ignore all the equally great countries in Europe
and elsewhere. Sweden also used to be the standard-bearer for the Nordic
model, this is not true anymore. There's plenty of reasons to avoid Sweden,
but here are the top ones:

* Everything is expensive.

* Taxes are high.

* Housing (more or less) can't be rented, buying is expensive.

* Weather is cold and/or dark most of the year.

* Culture life is relatively mediocre.

* Foreigners generally perceive Swedes as guarded.

* Racism is on the rise.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
Despite that "everything is expensive", "taxes are high" and "whether is cold"
it is actually a very good place to live.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_Index>

Cultural life in Stockholm is rather quite good for a town of its size, and
you have plenty of nature around you to compensate for not having quite as
many bars as London.

Racism is sadly on the rise, but not as bad as in many other societies.
Anecdotally I have immigrant friends and visitor friends, from backgrounds
that would invite racism, who say that they feel less discriminated in Sweden
than in other Euopean countries. No place is perfect though, you just have to
select the drawbacks you want to put up with.

More importantly for Hacker News readers I consider that the startup and
investment community to be fairly insular and limited in scope in Stockholm
compared to other places I have worked, particular London, West/East coast US.
But no surprises there, it is a lot smaller after all.

Indeed: I am a Swede.

~~~
forza
That's quite an old ranking and it's hard to compare against any other
ranking, but I can't imagine Ireland still being at the top of the list.

I do think the "IT-community" (and most people) are awesome. While somewhat
underappreciated it's lot more enthusiast/hacker than academic/corporate,
compared to other countries. People also generally don't care about
hierarchies and titles in the workplaces. I mean getting to work is often more
"troublesome" than getting things done at work. YMMV of course.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
Well, Ireland having economic troubls hasn't affected Sweden much. The GDP is
up:
[http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_...](http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:SWE&dl=en&hl=en&q=swedish+gdp)

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joelhaasnoot
Dutch government is also supporting similar efforts, seems together with the
US governement. [http://www.nu.nl/internet/2688855/nederland-
steekt-6-miljoen...](http://www.nu.nl/internet/2688855/nederland-
steekt-6-miljoen-in-internetvrijheid.html) (Dutch link)

We then proceed to accept new laws regulating net neutrality, but all major
ISPs by next tuesday have to block the Pirate Bay. Something seems wrong...

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hastur
Wow, this is awesome.

While the world's biggest "democracy" (India) censors the web, Swedish
government sponsors means of dissidence.

~~~
sdqali
I, as an Indian am tired of the 'World's Biggest Democracy' label. I feel it
is a clever way for India's politicians to mask huge problems we face as a
democracy - rampant social inequality, throwing money at problems that need
creative solutions cotinuous effort and commitment etc.

Except for very few states, turn up for elections seldom crosses 50%. If the
number of people participating is the measure for biggest, I would think there
are other places with bigger participation in the electoral process.

~~~
polshaw

        >huge problems.. social inequality.. turn up for elections seldom crosses 50%
    

Sorry to be depressing, but that sounds pretty par-for-the-course democracy to
me. Particularly the turn out.

