The Scandinavian countries consistently get solid ratings on economic freedom from libertarian think tanks, e.g. the Cato institute's economic freedom index. I'm not 100% sure of all the reasons, but they don't fit neatly into our tidy little left-right categories. In one of them - Sweden maybe? - parents are given a tax funded educational stipend that they can freely spend on the education of their choice for their children, including private options. That's like a "right wing" school choice wet dream in the US, and yet there it is, happening in a "Democratic socialist" country.
The problem is. Their Lefties let a hoard of people that don't conform to their way of thinking and are killing the nation from the inside out. Sweden is dying a slow death as they don't have enough money coming in to cover what they are paying leeches that just want to turn the country to their will.
I'm not arguing for it or saying I'd like to live there by the way, just trying to throw some fine distinctions and nuance into a line of conversation that so often turns retarded when people start throwing around undefined terms and classifying everything into a neat little binary that isn't.
And re: scale don't even get me started on that. I would relish nothing more than a massive devolution of the federal govt to a *much* smaller scale. Wouldn't mind TX and CA and NY finally seceding either, and leaving the rest of us to our own devices.
I think one source of American prosperity might be the absence of restrictive boundaries between the states. I don't know why you favor them, being on about prosperity.
The Heritage Foundation? WTAF
The Scandinavian countries consistently get solid ratings on economic freedom from libertarian think tanks, e.g. the Cato institute's economic freedom index. I'm not 100% sure of all the reasons, but they don't fit neatly into our tidy little left-right categories. In one of them - Sweden maybe? - parents are given a tax funded educational stipend that they can freely spend on the education of their choice for their children, including private options. That's like a "right wing" school choice wet dream in the US, and yet there it is, happening in a "Democratic socialist" country.
The problem is. Their Lefties let a hoard of people that don't conform to their way of thinking and are killing the nation from the inside out. Sweden is dying a slow death as they don't have enough money coming in to cover what they are paying leeches that just want to turn the country to their will.
This is fair. Their form of governance works for a geographically small country with a small population.
And it works particularly well if there's "scarcity" and cooperation is required for survival.
That doesn't work at scale because scarcity precludes scale.
It's harmless but the downside is they are not truly free like Americans.
I'm not arguing for it or saying I'd like to live there by the way, just trying to throw some fine distinctions and nuance into a line of conversation that so often turns retarded when people start throwing around undefined terms and classifying everything into a neat little binary that isn't.
oh, i know you're not. i was just sorta adding on to your good comment
And re: scale don't even get me started on that. I would relish nothing more than a massive devolution of the federal govt to a *much* smaller scale. Wouldn't mind TX and CA and NY finally seceding either, and leaving the rest of us to our own devices.
I think one source of American prosperity might be the absence of restrictive boundaries between the states. I don't know why you favor them, being on about prosperity.
amen, brother!
Do you dispute the findings based on their data, or are you rejecting the source itself?