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The USA has a huge "underclass" of people with next to nothing, which doesn't seem to exist in the Nordics.
This is a cold hard fact and no libertarian social darwinist number games mumbo jumbo can change that. I'm not very socialist but quite in the middle of the road (the online political tests put me from -0.5 to 0.5 on the left-right -10 to 10 scale), but this underclass is something that is completely unacceptable for me. And 85% of Finns want to keep it this way.
Remembering that the education is free in the Nordics, everyone is at least given the opportunity to rise up to a higher strata. From a Mississippi trailer park it's 100 times more difficult.
This is a cold hard fact and no libertarian social darwinist number games mumbo jumbo can change that. I'm not very socialist but quite in the middle of the road (the online political tests put me from -0.5 to 0.5 on the left-right -10 to 10 scale), but this underclass is something that is completely unacceptable for me. And 85% of Finns want to keep it this way.
Remembering that the education is free in the Nordics, everyone is at least given the opportunity to rise up to a higher strata. From a Mississippi trailer park it's 100 times more difficult.
Actually most people from a Mississippi trailer park qualify for all sorts of government programs, grants, low interest loans, etc.
This is a cold hard fact and no libertarian social darwinist number games mumbo jumbo can change that. I'm not very socialist but quite in the middle of the road (the online political tests put me from -0.5 to 0.5 on the left-right -10 to 10 scale), but this underclass is something that is completely unacceptable for me. And 85% of Finns want to keep it this way.
Remembering that the education is free in the Nordics, everyone is at least given the opportunity to rise up to a higher strata. From a Mississippi trailer park it's 100 times more difficult.
Actually most people from a Mississippi trailer park qualify for all sorts of government programs, grants, low interest loans, etc.
Easy to just repeat right wing talking points. Show us exactly how much they will get, and what programs are available? Are you saying all those people without health insurance just haven't been bothered to fill out the proper forms?
Easy to just repeat right wing talking points. Show us exactly how much they will get, and what programs are available? Are you saying all those people without health insurance just haven't been bothered to fill out the proper forms?
Coupla things:
1. I'm not right wing.
2. Programs vary by state and income level, so I can't show you exactly how much everyone living in a trailer park in Mississippi is eligible to receive, though it's easy to look up state and federal programs for each state and plug in factors such as income, disability status, number of people in a household, etc. Here are some good sources for you to start your research:
USA is a great champion of wannabe democracy but the country is extremely undemocratic in economical and educational matters. Handing out money to the poor out of pity doesn't establish democracy in the long run. USA could learn a few things from Nordics on how to build a democratic society. Sometimes Americans like to say that we should learn a thing or two from them, but i just can't imagine what that could be.
The problem is really in the first two deciles. 22,167$ and $30,875 for Sweden, and $8,223 and $20,431 for the US. So the lowest-****-poor Swede would be in decile 2. in the US. That $8k is shocking, I find it as insulting and barbaristic. And there's a huge difference between 20k and 30k.
Well, the United States is a very diverse country of 320 million people. Sweden is a very homogeneous country of 9 million people. Somehow that fact gets lost in the comparison.
Sweden's poor is richer than America's poor. America's middle class is richer than Sweden's middle class. And America's upper middle class is substantially wealthier than Sweden's upper middle class. That's the ultimate takeaway from the data.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
Income inequality becomes a bad thing if it's allowed to grow too much.
Income inequality is a bad thing when the pie's not big. When the pie is huge, it's not such a bad thing. Having a smaller share of a much larger pie is not so bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
And the "the wealthier - the more unequal" is complete rubbish as well. Norway and Finland were terribly poor in 1800, and the income disparity is at similar levels as in Sweden.
And I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. How can you conceivably have a society of highly compensated professionals and simultaneously maintain a flat income distribution? That's not realistic. While the poverty that does exist in the U.S. is certainly regrettable, that's far from being the major driver of income inequality here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariete
That blog sheds no light, it just states as there's a lot of old money in Sweden. The wealth distribution is seen on those figures, 22k vs 8k and 31k vs 20k.
You clearly didn't read the article. The author talks about being surprised by how many people confuse income and wealth. You did just that.
The wealth distribution in Sweden is very unequal. The wealth distribution in Sweden from highest quintile to lowest is 73%, 20%, 6%, 0.5% and 0%. In the United States, it's 84%, 11%, 4%, 0.2% and 0.1%.
2. Programs vary by state and income level, so I can't show you exactly how much everyone living in a trailer park in Mississippi is eligible to receive, though it's easy to look up state and federal programs for each state and plug in factors such as income, disability status, number of people in a household, etc. Here are some good sources for you to start your research:
3. I didn't say anything about people without health insurance, in Mississippi or anywhere else.
Yes, but unlike any other developed nation, the US is the only one where a middle class family with health insurance has to go begging on tv for help with medical bills, or face bankruptcy. It happens over and over. I see it on our local news. The US can't even bother to fix that, because every time we try, the blowback invariably comes from all the jerrymandered red states. And guess where most of those are? Hint: Mississippi is in the dead center of it.
They are lucky to be part of the USA and not cast off to fend for themselves. Without federal money rolling in from the maker states, they'd be even worse off than they are, which is hard to fathom.
I'm not sure what the European equivalent would be. Is Albania in the EU?
This is a cold hard fact and no libertarian social darwinist number games mumbo jumbo can change that. I'm not very socialist but quite in the middle of the road (the online political tests put me from -0.5 to 0.5 on the left-right -10 to 10 scale), but this underclass is something that is completely unacceptable for me. And 85% of Finns want to keep it this way.
Comparing the U.S. to Scandinavian countries is like comparing New York City public schools to homogeneous suburban school districts (or better yet, private schools). A much bigger and more diverse country will have more of everything.
Sweden is not without its problems, however. Child poverty there is increasing at an alarming rate. This is due in large part to immigration.
Remembering that the education is free in the Nordics, everyone is at least given the opportunity to rise up to a higher strata. From a Mississippi trailer park it's 100 times more difficult.
You sound more like an American looking at Scandinavia through rose-colored glasses than someone who actually lives there.
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