Where would you rather live the US or Sweden

mcgruff10 said:

I never knew that Sweden had roughly one million more people than New Jersey.  What a small little country. 

A lot of bang for your buck.

Spiritual_Chaos said:

mrussel1 said:

JPPJ84 said:

mrussel1 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

cincybearcat said:

Annafalk said:

cincybearcat said:

Sweden's population is what 1-2% people of color?  Not sure I'd like the diversity there.  

It’s about 24 % of the population that has an immigrant background.

Right. Kinda like someone from Tennessee immigrating to Pennsylvania 

?

Culturally, there's probably more of a difference between TN and PA than Sweden and Norway.  

Sounds funny. Why? North and South or what’s the reason?

The US is not homogeneous by any means.  We're a country of 300 million that stretches from ocean to ocean, melting in cultures at different times of history.  For example, if you go to Cleveland, Chicago, Pitts, you run into people who are 2nd or 3rd generation from eastern and southern Europe.  If you go to Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Iowa, St. Louis (basically up the Mississippi and through tributaries), that's where the Germans came during the mid 19th century so those areas have very distinct cultures based on that heritage.  The South, historically, has not been as hospitable to immigrants, so the culture is not nearly as diverse, particularly in what is considered the old South.  And to compare California coast to Alabama is just night and day. 
Compare that to Sweden, whose population is less than a million more than just the FIVE boroughs of NYC.  It's a completely different animal culturally and politically.  Sometimes that's difficult for people to understand.  

But our 10 million are spread out on a landmass that is the fifth largest in Europe, and is as tall as from Sweden to the south of Italy in size. 

Isolation creates differences - just see how mutations work (if you believe in evolution).

Obviously our strong social democratic values have hold us together somewhat. But still.

And why would we be similar to Norway? They club seals to death over there and won't share their oil-money with us.:P

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

Same with Canada.

PJ_Soul said:

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

Same with Canada.

Touché 

bbiggs said:

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

And despite this, some on this thread choose to shit all over America. Go figure. 

Well ya know, it s America. Since we don’t lead in every single category listed we are the worst.  

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

What is spot on? I don't get this.

It would be great if there were no countries or borders. Just  think about that. If we were all just humans. No nationality or nationalisim

And why now are you all so at eachother. No need really.  

Spiritual_Chaos said:

mcgruff10 said:

bbiggs said:

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

And despite this, some on this thread choose to shit all over America. Go figure. 

Well ya know, it s America. Since we don’t lead in every single category listed we are the worst.  

"Don't lead in every single category". This makes it sound like you do lead or are up in the top in most categories... don't be sneaky.

No one has said you are the worst. But you are pretty far from the best. With all these unique fundamental shit-things that most other countries would never fathom having be a part of society.  

So it's not about "not leading in everyyyyyyy category". It's about being surprisingly crazy bad at things.

But a person who believes that working people shouldn't have any legal right to vacation and that McDonalds in no way should pay living wages to their employees might have problems being able to grasp that.

Two things by the way that helps you be pretty far from the best.

The problem with the 'living wages' argument is the bubble-up (and even trickle-down) effect it has on the rest of similarly-paid jobs. If a massive employer of workers at a certain pay rate gives those individuals raises:

1) Workers not at McDonalds but being paid similarly (slightly less, the same, or slightly more) will expect to be paid more than working at McDonalds (otherwise they'd go flip burgers), which puts strain on small/medium businesses to pay competitively, which means they can hire fewer, which means skilled workers end up doing more work per worker so that their peers can go work for McDonalds for more money (an extreme but statistically probable scenario). This is just basic economics.
2) I believe in legal right to vacation for everyone because it's not healthy for anyone to work every week of their year.

SC, I suspect we want the same things, but I think you need to consider the impact on the system more carefully. Because a lifestyle can work in Sweden doesn't yet prove it can work in the States - there are different risks which would require mitigation and cautious planning.

benjs said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

mcgruff10 said:

bbiggs said:

josevolution said:

You can’t go to Germany and be German, you can’t go to Spain and be a Spaniard but but you can come to America and be an American ! I know Obama said it I’m not sure who came up with but it’s spot on ...

And despite this, some on this thread choose to shit all over America. Go figure. 

Well ya know, it s America. Since we don’t lead in every single category listed we are the worst.  

"Don't lead in every single category". This makes it sound like you do lead or are up in the top in most categories... don't be sneaky.

No one has said you are the worst. But you are pretty far from the best. With all these unique fundamental shit-things that most other countries would never fathom having be a part of society.  

So it's not about "not leading in everyyyyyyy category". It's about being surprisingly crazy bad at things.

But a person who believes that working people shouldn't have any legal right to vacation and that McDonalds in no way should pay living wages to their employees might have problems being able to grasp that.

Two things by the way that helps you be pretty far from the best.

The problem with the 'living wages' argument is the bubble-up (and even trickle-down) effect it has on the rest of similarly-paid jobs. If a massive employer of workers at a certain pay rate gives those individuals raises:

1) Workers not at McDonalds but being paid similarly (slightly less, the same, or slightly more) will expect to be paid more than working at McDonalds (otherwise they'd go flip burgers), which puts strain on small/medium businesses to pay competitively, which means they can hire fewer, which means skilled workers end up doing more work per worker so that their peers can go work for McDonalds for more money (an extreme but statistically probable scenario). This is just basic economics.
2) I believe in legal right to vacation for everyone because it's not healthy for anyone to work every week of their year.

SC, I suspect we want the same things, but I think you need to consider the impact on the system more carefully. Because a lifestyle can work in Sweden doesn't yet prove it can work in the States - there are different risks which would require mitigation and cautious planning.

1. So. Start taking steps towards it and support it instead of going  with a "NO WAY!" opinion? Nothing changes over night. But if other countries can pay shitty (I would know, I have family members working in the restaurant field) but livable wages and other fields are not starting an armed revolution over it - so can the US. Having a skewed economy while other countries can survive without having it, would be a reason to not have a skewed economy. Not to keep the skewed economy.

"We can't free and pay our slaves, because then the fisherman will want to be paid more" is not a reason to not pay the slaves. 

And believe in me more, I do know there is not a "turn a switch" solution.. But there is a difference between "we need to take steps because we do things absurdly over here" and "NO WAY".

2. Well, that is the reason why countries driven by sound ideals and unions and workers fought for the right to vacation. And why modern countries that value its citizens have it.

From wiki - who's the odd one out? 

In the majority of nations, including all industrialised nations except the United States, advances in employee relations have seen the introduction of statutory agreements for minimum employee leave from work—that is the amount of entitlement to paid vacation and public holidays.

Now who's often the odd one out when it comes to other things that are there to help the citizens -  like maternity/paternal leave, health care etc?

And you have people on here thinking that workers should not have a legal right to vacation. There is NO WAY McDonald employees should be paid living wages. Health care should not be a human right. Ofc the US won't catch up to pretty much all other modern countries when people are being conditioned into having - as objectively as it is possible to be - such shitty opinions. "But look at me by my pool"



In the Berlin centralstation I saw that they has much better public trash bins than Sweden where you can sort your trash - you don't see me saying "NO WAY - we should not sort our trash!"