Sweden: PC Out of Control

Only one sizable party in the country, the Sweden Democrats, ...

Just to show how ridiculous that report is...

In the last elections - which had the conservaites as winners - the Swedish Democrats got 2.93% of the votes = came in as 8th "best" party.

It's an anti-immigrant and xenophobic extreme right-wing party, btw, with about 2,700 members.

You're claiming that something like 92,000 people ever vote in a country the size of Sweden and you're calling ME ridiculous??

Swedes apparently derive 90% of their sustenance from welfare one way or another so it shouldn't really matter

ASSUMING that what you read about them being taxed at 90% is believable, you have to assume that 90% of their economy, i.e. whatever they hope to get out of life, comes in the form of government benefits.

Peasants in the middle ages of course never paid more than about 15% in taxes, i.e. they never had to contend with leftists and socialists and only had aristocrats and kings and what not to deal with.

Background: A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in 2000-02 by the global economic downturn, but fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic vagaries. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but the public rejected the introduction of the euro in a 2003 referendum.

Economy - overview: Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. It has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications, and a skilled labor force. Timber, hydropower, and iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for about 90% of industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for 50% of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for only 1% of GDP and 2% of employment. The government's commitment to fiscal discipline resulted in a substantial budgetary surplus in 2001, which was cut by more than half in 2002, due to the global economic slowdown, declining revenue, and increased spending. The Swedish central bank (the Riksbank) focuses on price stability with its inflation target of 2%. Growth remained sluggish in 2003, but picked up during 2004-06. Presumably because of generous sick-leave benefits, Swedish workers report in sick more often than other Europeans. In September 2003, Swedish voters turned down entry into the euro system, concerned about the impact on the economy and sovereignty.

ASSUMING that what you read about them being taxed at 90% is believable, you have to assume that 90% of their economy, i.e. whatever they hope to get out of life, comes in the form of government benefits.

Individual taxes
Individual earned income is taxed mainly by
municipality of residence, at rates ranging
from about 29 to 35 percent. On taxable earnings
above appr. SEK 327,600 (in 2007),
individuals pay another 20-25 percent in
national income tax.
Net income from capital interest, dividends,
capital gains, etc. is generally taxed
at 30 percent. Interest payments are fully
deductible. Up to 100 percent of capital losses
may be deducted from capital gains, but in
some cases only 70 percent of the losses
are deductible. A deficit in the calculation
of net capital income results in a tax reduction
of 30 percent of the deficit up to SEK
100,000. On deficit above SEK 100,000, the
tax reduction is 21 percent.
Personal wealth above a fiscal value of
SEK 1.5 million for single people and SEK
3.0 million for couple taxed jointly is taxed
at a rate of 0.75 percent (except for wealth
related to real estate assets, which are taxed
at a rate of 1.5 percent). Wealth includes
bank accounts, stocks, cars, boats, real
estate, jewelry, etc. The Government has
announced plans to phase out the wealth
tax completely during this electoral period.
In addition real estate tax of 1 percent
calculated based a determined value for
single-family houses and of 0.5 percent on
multi dwelling buildings must be paid (The
Government has announced plans to abolish
the present real estate tax, and replace it
by a low local government property-related
charge. The aim for this to happen is 2008).

Quote:

Background: A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in 2000-02 by the global economic downturn, but fiscal discipline over the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic vagaries. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, but the public rejected the introduction of the euro in a 2003 referendum.

Quote:

Economy - overview: Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits.

That strikes me as lying by omission, starting with the obvious fact that anybody claiming to have been neutral in the war against Hitler was an a$$hole to begin with.

Not mentioned is the fact that Sweden made huge amounts of money selling steel and materials to Hitler and then coasted for several decades on the proceeds and I'd GUESS that they're never really going to do as well again as they did then until Hitler comes back, which may be part of their political class wanting to turn the place muslim, which is the closest philosophical system there is to naziism in today's world.

The other thing Swedes used to excel at was making the world's ugliest cars, and that was a sort of a stroke of genius. EVERYBODY manufactures pretty cars; Swedes alone deduced that not all people are beautiful, and that all those ugly people out there in places like Baltimore and Detroit might WANT ugly cars to go along with. Volvos in the 40s - 80s were ugly enough to reduce housing values within a three block radius just by being parked at the curb.

Swedes in fact had that market all to themselves; more recently however they appear to have s***canned their entire design team and hired Japanese and Italian designers so that Saabs and Volvos are now hard to tell from everything else other than for the greater frequency of repairs.

Like I say, it IS going to hit the fan there, and it will be ugly when it happens.

Not mentioned is the fact that Sweden made huge amounts of money selling steel and materials to Hitler and then coasted for several decades on the proceeds and I'd GUESS that they're never really going to do as well again as they did then until Hitler comes back, which may be part of their political class wanting to turn the place muslim, which is the closest philosophical system there is to naziism in today's world.

Holy crap - way back in 1043!!! I had no idea.

They need to start arming themselves as a first step.

Sweden employs 53 500 people in its armed forces. This translates into 0.6% of the population of 8.9 million. Furthermore Sweden can call on its mobilized force of 500 000. The country is also well-equipped with 540 armoured tanks, 300 aircraft, 12 submarines and 30 surface vessels.
Sweden has always put a great deal of emphasis on its defence forces. It is hard to protect a large and sparsely populated country. It is especially difficult and expensive for a non-aligned country that did not want to become too dependent on arms systems supplied by other countries. For this same reason Sweden has also had a very strong defence industry that has not only manufactured small arms but also the most advanced fighter jets that are really the prerogatives of such giants as U.S.A., Russia, Britain and France.

Sweden tops the list of the countries that invest the most money per capita for defence. During the period 1985 to 1997 Sweden increased its defence budget by 14 percent while other countries were cutting down. Swedes are very supportive of a strong defence for the country and in all opinion polls they have shown little support for cutbacks. During the last few years Swedish defence expenditure has remained relatively constant at about seven percent of central government spending. This is now changing and drastic changes in the whole defence structure are to be expected. Already fewer conscripts find themselves actually doing their military service and the period they serve is much shorter. More and more young Swedish boys will find themselves doing some kind of alternative civil service. There is much talk of" a flexible defence, a narrower defence.

For a country of its size that moreover has not been in war since 1814, Sweden has a very strong defence and an imposing defence industry. It is nothing short of remarkable that the country has mustered the economic, technical and industrial clout needed for such advanced airplane projects as the Drum, Dragon, Viggen and Gripen that are otherwise the prerogative of the U.S.A., Russia, Britain and France. Sweden now realizes that the JAS Grip en multirole combat plane was its last such project. In the future many countries will work together and the Saab-British Aerospace alliance signals such a beginning