[lit-ideas] Re: Cato and welfare
- From: "mo@xxxxx" <mo@xxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 18:20:27 +0000
Dear Teemu,
It's funny that you mention Sweden's crime rates - Sweden is another
country that perplexes me. With several months of darkness in every
year I'm not surprising that the country also has one of the highest
suicide rates in the world.
But I once heard that Sweden's murder rate is also one of the highest
in the world.
The only data I can find to support this is from this graph, which
shows Sweden to be a close second behind the USA in the OECD murder
rates (but the USA itself is behind such trail blazers as El
Salvador).
http://www.cely.com/firearms/graph10.html
On the other hand more recent data from the WHO shows that the Swedes
have mellowed out (Table A.7):
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en
/annex.pdf
So perhaps all that welfare is doing something.
I had not thought of Sweden's immigration rates being so high - my
only memory of "ethnic" Swedes centers around Dr Alban reminding me
that "It's my life" in the 90s (an excellent tune). Can you point me
to some statistics about this?
The other strange side to Sweden is its environmentally-friendly
rhetoric versus its economy. The companies I am most aware of are
IKEA (disposable furniture), H&M (disposable clothing) and Ericsson
(cell phones which they would love you to dispose of every year).
Does anyone know how the Kyoto protocol is affecting the Swedish
economy?
mo
-----Original Message from Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>-----
But what about Sweden? They have propably the highest
percentage of immigrants per capita of the western
countries (USA included I think, although I am too
lazy to look up the stats,) high taxes, extensive
wellfare state and seem on average quite happy to pay
their taxes. I remember an online discussion where
someone Swedish opined that (a) they get what they pay
for (health care, education, etc.,) and (b) Swedish
middle classes consider it a choice between providing
wellfare for poorer people and being able to walk the
streets without the fear of getting mugged and robbed.
Nothing altruistic in that account, although it is not
quite right.
Cheers,
Teemu
Helsinki, Finland
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
http://mail.yahoo.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
