The Swedish utopia doesn't exist

[Balog]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sorry-leftist-americans-your-swedish-utopia-does-not-exist_1000785.html

Good read.

[Doggy Daddy]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sorry-leftist-americans-your-swedish-utopia-does-not-exist_1000785.html

Good read.

You mean there really isn't a bikini team?!?      

[TommyGunn]

But......will anyone pay attention?

I do wish someone would force   feed this to Bernie Sanders,  President Obama and  Ms. Clinton.

[Boomhauer]

But......will anyone pay attention?

I do wish someone would force   feed this to Bernie Sanders,  President Obama and  Ms. Clinton.

The communist sons of bitches always reply with "But that only means the right people haven't been in charge for it to work.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

The communist sons of bitches always reply with "But that only means the right people haven't been in charge for it to work.

Yep. Almost married a Swedish girl I met in Germany. Leave it to me to find redhead Swedish girl. Well, we are friends, email and talk a bunch still. And you present her with this quandary, that is the repose you get.

[230RN]

   The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

[Perd Hapley]

http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/30/scandinavia-is-a-collectivist-paradise-n

[230RN]

When the people find they can vote themselves money,  that will herald the end of the republic.

[Firethorn]

Yeah, I'll note that I don't support their welfare state, that's much more tied into their culture.  All I want is some prison reform.

In short, there are lessons, both good and bad, what's good to do and what's good not to do, that we can take from the Swedes. 

[Tallpine]

http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/30/scandinavia-is-a-collectivist-paradise-n

Comments ... heads exploding:  

Tony|4.30.15 @ 11:22AM|#
I could ask the same of you, but for some unfathomable reason you don't think imposing a nationwide policy of radical laissez-faire capitalism actually counts as an imposition. I've given thought to leaving, for sure.

 
NidhoggRocketman|4.30.15 @ 11:27AM|#
Damn evil libertarians, plotting to take over the world and leave you alone!


 
Gilbert Martin|4.30.15 @ 11:36AM|#
Not forcing people to do stuff constitutes "imposing" things on them!

This is what passes for logic in the liberal mind.
 
 
Tony|4.30.15 @ 11:45AM|#
You are forcing people to do stuff. You're forcing them to live a much riskier life than they would have to under a more socialized system. You do not *expletive deleted*ing get brownie points for slapping a freedom bumper sticker on your policies. You do evade responsibility for their consequences. Why is this very simple concept so hard for you guys to understand?

And it gets worse:

Tony|4.30.15 @ 3:14PM|#
So we can't have a decent society because you don't like that decent societies require force to survive. And you wonder why I don't bother with libertarianism.

[RevDisk]

Original article is a bit short. Correct, but short. Yes, if you institute socialism in a country with very high work ethics, social trust, et al, it will work out. With a good enough population with even relatively decent leadership, any political system would work out.

[freakazoid]

With a good enough population with even relatively decent leadership, any political system would work out.

Yup. Even a totalitarian system could. I would make a great leader if I was put in charge with unlimited power.

[brimic]

Sanandaji shows that these Scandinavian values follow people as they move abroad, even for generations: Americans of Scandinavian descent, whose ancestors left way before modern welfare states were established, tend to carry many of their norms with them. The median incomes of Americans with Scandinavian heritage is 20 percent higher than average income in the U.S. as a whole, and poverty rates in this group is roughly half of that of average Americans.

Once again, Scandinavia is full of Scandinavians.

[vaskidmark]

Yup. Even a totalitarian system could. I would make a great leader if I was put in charge with unlimited power.

The line starts over there, buddy.  Right behind me and all the other folks who got in line after me.  Know your place, Your Regalness.

stay safe.

[Balog]

http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/30/scandinavia-is-a-collectivist-paradise-n

I stopped reading when he called Sweden's immigration policy "obviously admirable."

[KD5NRH]

The line starts over there, buddy.  Right behind me and all the other folks who got in line after me.  Know your place, Your Regalness.

I identify as first in line.

[Regolith]

Comments ... heads exploding:  


And it gets worse:

"Tony" is a troll. There's some speculation he's a sockpuppet, but regardless he's about as well received at reason as a terminal case of cancer.

[Mannlicher]

and we won't even get into the changes in  Swedish Culture, due to the admission of around half a million muslims in the past few years.  That puts them at 5% of the population.  For the most part, they are on welfare, won't mesh with Swedish culture and society, and hold diametrically opposed worldviews and social outlooks.

[makattak]

I stopped reading when he called Sweden's immigration policy "obviously admirable."

It's Reason. They don't believe in borders.

[vaskidmark]

Maybe the Swedes should invite the Dutch to invade and take over.

http://www.marxist.com/dutch-king-declares-the-end-of-the-welfare-state.htm

(Yes, that link was chosen over all the other possibilities because of their political stance.  That and the fact that I feared all y'all would hurt me if I linked to some of the moonbat TEOTWAWKI wailings the folks losing their free cheese have written.)

stay  safe.

[K Frame]

[AJ Dual]

It's Reason. They don't believe in borders.

I forgive them, because in a Libertarian-Right society, there's nothing to exploit. No welfare, no handouts, private property and self defense are sacrosanct. There's also no indolent welfare under-class refusing to do the entry-level manual labor work. And all of this reduces the economic incentives for mass migration. Anyone who does come over is just like anyone else, engaging in the free exchange of goods and services for money, or vice-versa.

However, that all said... having open borders should be the LAST piece of the Libertarian platform enacted... not the FIRST. 

[Balog]

It's Reason. They don't believe in borders.

I know. Still a good reason to not take them seriously.

[Scout26]

Original article is a bit short. Correct, but short. Yes, if you institute socialism in a country with very high work ethics, social trust, et al, it will work out.for a while With a good enough population with even relatively decent leadership, any political system would work out.

FTFY.  After some time, it reaches the tipping point where you start spending more then you take in in taxes.  That's when the downward spiral picks up speed.   See Denmark and Holland as examples.

[Scout26]

Maybe the Swedes should invite the Dutch to invade and take over.

http://www.marxist.com/dutch-king-declares-the-end-of-the-welfare-state.htm

(Yes, that link was chosen over all the other possibilities because of their political stance.  That and the fact that I feared all y'all would hurt me if I linked to some of the moonbat TEOTWAWKI wailings the folks losing their free cheese have written.)

stay  safe.

That article made my brain hurt.  I only got about two paragraphs in before the twisted pretzel logic went beyond any comprehension.