ris said:
standard of living is one of the highest in the world in scandinavian countries, as well as the most democratic, open and forward thinking [in particualr with regard to gender and race issues]. incidentally, scandinavia, rather than being one country it is in fact 4, independent countries.
I know that, I'm not stupid. They do share the same basic communistic principles with each other though. However, there are some issues I don't understand:
You say they are the most democratic. How do you figure that? Open and forward thinking? Thats even more confusing. As far as I know, they have severe restrictions on firearms, have virtually no standing army, and censor the press. Try writing something about the Nazis for instance, or painting a big swatzika on your front door. I believe it is illegal. That is not very open and forward thinking in my opinion. They are trying to legislate morality.
for a the standard of living is great if you are rich, but shitty when poor, so it both the best and worst.
Shitty when you are poor? Of course! Hence the term poor. However, ANYONE can get a better standard of living if they work for it. Just because you are poor doesn't mean you have to stay poor. And I don't mean begging the government for more money either.
in b they are not 'free'. as earlier mentioned they have been paid for from tax, so therefore not free.
i see no relation between the urge to work hard and the amount of state support. i work hard, all the people i work with work hard. it is a tenuous, at best, presumption that increased state breeds 'laziness'. show me data and i'm prepared to think about it.
Um, how about the fact that people under communisim (aka socialism) are discouraged from working? Because they will never be able to get rich? Want data? East Europe and Soviet Union. They had a large state influence and most people did NOT work as hard as they could or give the best performance possible. Increasing the government and social programs DOES breed laziness.
as for where i would rather live, well, i think we both know that
it seems that all that ridiculous, evil, socialism breeds great design quality, no commercial tat for them
understand this though: i'm not going to live there for their social policy, but for their standard of design.
Great design quality? Um, explain please? Design what? Anyways I was under the impression you want to move to some Scandinavian country because of the lavish social programs.
Leslie, have you ever been in Scandinavia? Ever talked to some of the people there? Many like it there, but there just as many that, despite their lavish social programs, HATE living there because they CAN'T GET RICH and the government punishes people that work hard. There are several people in Sweden I know that would JUMP at the opportunity to get a green card. Its all OK and dandy if you are poor, but as soon as you want to increase your standard of living by working, the government punishes you as if you are a "naughty boy with unsocial thoughts".
