Aug 20th 2011, 22:06:54
Henrik, congratulations on your countries success, but sorry if you want to compare Sweden to other economies then do the full comparison. You have the population of Arizona, but it is almost exclusively the same ethnic and religious populations, living almost exclusively in urban environments. Your largest city - with 22% of your population - has a smaller metro population than Orlando - not counting the tourist in to see Disney. You have the GDP of North Carolina - but that is dominated (70%) with an internal service industry so international trade and competition issues have less effect than on any US State. Your population growth is almost level and you really dont do ethnic/racial/religious minorities or immigrants. Most of your country is contained in 3 major cities spread out over a land area about the size of South Carolina. Internationally you are protected by location and NATO keeping your military expenses very low. (CIA world factbook; US Census data if you want to check my sources)
There are certainly things to compare, but to give a blanket comparison is not at all accurate.
What is a much better comparison is to look state-to-state within the US. Still a lot of variance but sharing much more of the internal problems. There the evidence is clear: states that have reduced regulation and taxation have done much better than the high-tax / high social welfare states.
NOW3P, interesting that you neglect to provide any facts - credible or not - in your dismissal of CKH. Instead you rely on name-calling and your own prejudiced opinion. Do you actually know anyone who has even been to a Tea Party rally, let alone read what the goals of the movement are? Or do you simply sit back and believe everything they tell you on MSNBC?