Amake
05-03-2010, 04:56 AM
First, some background. Sweden, a largeish nation still quite depopulated from mass emigrations some two centuries ago, is a cold and desolate place. (At least the north half.) Socialism emerged here, as in Russia, because people had thousands of years to figure out that trusting each other and working together made it possible to survive. In the early twentieth century this was formalized in the form of the Social Democratic Workers' Party who, by revolutionary policies like lowering the standard work day from fourteen to eight hours came to hold the majority of the country's government seats in a basically unbreakable iron grip until this day.
Well, basically. It might confuse you to learn Sweden's government is a composite of seven distinct parties, each beating the 4% vote limit to get a seat by a (usually) wide margin. These parties form coalitions with each other to achieve a >50% majority which lets them be in charge.
The seven parties are, in order from left to right, The Left, The aforementioned Social Democrats, The Center, The Peoples' Party, The Moderates and The Christian Democrats. Also The Environmental Party transcending the left-right spectrum. (Although protecting the environment is traditionally consdidered a non-profit and therefore leftist ideology.) Interesting to note is that The Center is actually considered to be right of the center line, and the rightmost party are still further left than America's Democratic Party.
The four right-wing parties won the last election in 2006 by promising lower taxes for the poor, more competitive education for children and, in fact, making every citizen a millionaire. The Moderates, with logos in a brighter shade of blue than before, swore they were "the new workers' party" and that they would do everything the old workers' party have the experience to do, except better.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Here's some highlights of the past four years:
The membership costs for unions and unemployment insurance have increased dramatically and been made non-tax deductible. Basically, over 400 000 people can no longer afford the same job security they used to.
The aforementioned unemployment insurance has had its maximum payouts lowered some 6% and its duration shortened from 450 to 300 days. Also, the amount of work required to qualify for this insurance has been increased. So if you're fired for no reason since you can't afford to be in a union, you better hurry up and get a new job cause the fruits of your labor are no longer quite so sweet.
Also, the budget for unemployment offices have been reduced by a number of billions and 50 000 positions removed, apparently just to further fuck with people looking for a job. A riddle: Where does an unemployment office worker go when she's unemployed?
And budgets have been cut across the board for adult education. Particularly high school equaliency educations have been reduced. Seems like if you're poor and stuck in a dead-end job as your middle age approaches and you can just feel your possibilities shrinking, this decision is specifically made to laugh in your face. Also immigrants who want to learn Swedish.
Also, a nugget I just had to go look up, the only institution for research into the negative health effects of work at given workplaces (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbetslivsinstitutet) (Could only find a link in Swedish) has been shut down. Apaprently they're subtly cutting down on workplace inspections and all that sort of things that'd increase knowledge about workplace health and safety through various obscure channels. Now, I realize they have budgets to decide, but when they're so sneaky about it they really look like some kind of evil masterminds with a hardon of hate for blue collars.
75% of the tax reductions done affect the wealthiest 50% of the population. The special tax on large fortunes, intended to motivate the very wealthy to invest their money back into the community rather than hoarding it, has been removed in order to motivate the very wealthy to invest heir money back into the community rather than hoarding it. A particular tax reform has been made to make it cheaper for a private person to hire housekeepers such as cooks, maids and illegal immigrant sex slaves. I may have put some personal color on that last sentence. House tax has been flattened to make it cheaper to own a really big house. Sick and unemployed people, parents on maternal or paternal leave and old age pensioners have had our tax reduced by exactly zero.
Prime minister Reinfeldt personally promised not to privatize any emergency hospitals, and then had the law preventing exactly this removed, making it a decision for each of the country's 21 regions to veto privatization.
There's also been loose talk about privatizing everything including the alcohol outlet, the bank, the telephone company and airlines. Privatizing public companies has been likened to selling your house to stay at a five star hotel for a while, which must be appealing to these guys pretty much guaranteed to only be in charge for four years out of every 20 or 30.
A series of laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA_law) have been put into place to prevent terrorists from contacting each other on Facebook without using code words by monitoring pretty much all Internet traffic. Because since we have no enemies whatsoever that we know of, our leaders assume we must have invisible enemies. I have proposed to mount flamethrowers to fire randomly in the streets for spy checks, but no one takes that seriously for some reason.
Public museums are to have an entry fee, because culture and history is only for rich people. Grades are given to students from the sixth grade, because kids need to be pressured so they grow up tough and can step over each other to get the best jobs. The board for protection of animals and the board for integrating immigrants into society are to be shut down for hopefully unrelated reasons. (As opposed to "Who gives a shit about the dumb little creatures?")
Scandals have been pretty dull. A few officials were caught not paying their TV tax, making them in no way unique. As a matter of fact I've never even heard of anyone ever paying the TV tax.
Here (http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/07/02/33/71d8a385.pdf) is a big list of promises and propaganda for your perusal.
But anyway, none of this is as troublesome as this year's election, where the Sweden Democrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverigedemokraterna) will likely get around 5% of the votes, since our government in their blind obedience to the trends and policies of the United States have managed to make the people of Sweden afraid of a very small number of America-hating Muslim extremists. These people are semi-literate thugs, half of whose ideology includes garbage like pro-wolf hunting to gain attention and the other half based on the single ideal of recoiling in fear and disgust from people who are different rather than trying to integrate with and learn from them.Their supporters are prideful, frustrated, depressed, rebellious and lonely people stupid enough to look for a simple answer to all their problems and a simple solution that lets them feel in control of their lives. I know one such supporter personally, to my sadness.
That was rather more rant-like than I had planned, but therapeuthic. Thanks for reading.
Well, basically. It might confuse you to learn Sweden's government is a composite of seven distinct parties, each beating the 4% vote limit to get a seat by a (usually) wide margin. These parties form coalitions with each other to achieve a >50% majority which lets them be in charge.
The seven parties are, in order from left to right, The Left, The aforementioned Social Democrats, The Center, The Peoples' Party, The Moderates and The Christian Democrats. Also The Environmental Party transcending the left-right spectrum. (Although protecting the environment is traditionally consdidered a non-profit and therefore leftist ideology.) Interesting to note is that The Center is actually considered to be right of the center line, and the rightmost party are still further left than America's Democratic Party.
The four right-wing parties won the last election in 2006 by promising lower taxes for the poor, more competitive education for children and, in fact, making every citizen a millionaire. The Moderates, with logos in a brighter shade of blue than before, swore they were "the new workers' party" and that they would do everything the old workers' party have the experience to do, except better.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Here's some highlights of the past four years:
The membership costs for unions and unemployment insurance have increased dramatically and been made non-tax deductible. Basically, over 400 000 people can no longer afford the same job security they used to.
The aforementioned unemployment insurance has had its maximum payouts lowered some 6% and its duration shortened from 450 to 300 days. Also, the amount of work required to qualify for this insurance has been increased. So if you're fired for no reason since you can't afford to be in a union, you better hurry up and get a new job cause the fruits of your labor are no longer quite so sweet.
Also, the budget for unemployment offices have been reduced by a number of billions and 50 000 positions removed, apparently just to further fuck with people looking for a job. A riddle: Where does an unemployment office worker go when she's unemployed?
And budgets have been cut across the board for adult education. Particularly high school equaliency educations have been reduced. Seems like if you're poor and stuck in a dead-end job as your middle age approaches and you can just feel your possibilities shrinking, this decision is specifically made to laugh in your face. Also immigrants who want to learn Swedish.
Also, a nugget I just had to go look up, the only institution for research into the negative health effects of work at given workplaces (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbetslivsinstitutet) (Could only find a link in Swedish) has been shut down. Apaprently they're subtly cutting down on workplace inspections and all that sort of things that'd increase knowledge about workplace health and safety through various obscure channels. Now, I realize they have budgets to decide, but when they're so sneaky about it they really look like some kind of evil masterminds with a hardon of hate for blue collars.
75% of the tax reductions done affect the wealthiest 50% of the population. The special tax on large fortunes, intended to motivate the very wealthy to invest their money back into the community rather than hoarding it, has been removed in order to motivate the very wealthy to invest heir money back into the community rather than hoarding it. A particular tax reform has been made to make it cheaper for a private person to hire housekeepers such as cooks, maids and illegal immigrant sex slaves. I may have put some personal color on that last sentence. House tax has been flattened to make it cheaper to own a really big house. Sick and unemployed people, parents on maternal or paternal leave and old age pensioners have had our tax reduced by exactly zero.
Prime minister Reinfeldt personally promised not to privatize any emergency hospitals, and then had the law preventing exactly this removed, making it a decision for each of the country's 21 regions to veto privatization.
There's also been loose talk about privatizing everything including the alcohol outlet, the bank, the telephone company and airlines. Privatizing public companies has been likened to selling your house to stay at a five star hotel for a while, which must be appealing to these guys pretty much guaranteed to only be in charge for four years out of every 20 or 30.
A series of laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA_law) have been put into place to prevent terrorists from contacting each other on Facebook without using code words by monitoring pretty much all Internet traffic. Because since we have no enemies whatsoever that we know of, our leaders assume we must have invisible enemies. I have proposed to mount flamethrowers to fire randomly in the streets for spy checks, but no one takes that seriously for some reason.
Public museums are to have an entry fee, because culture and history is only for rich people. Grades are given to students from the sixth grade, because kids need to be pressured so they grow up tough and can step over each other to get the best jobs. The board for protection of animals and the board for integrating immigrants into society are to be shut down for hopefully unrelated reasons. (As opposed to "Who gives a shit about the dumb little creatures?")
Scandals have been pretty dull. A few officials were caught not paying their TV tax, making them in no way unique. As a matter of fact I've never even heard of anyone ever paying the TV tax.
Here (http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/07/02/33/71d8a385.pdf) is a big list of promises and propaganda for your perusal.
But anyway, none of this is as troublesome as this year's election, where the Sweden Democrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverigedemokraterna) will likely get around 5% of the votes, since our government in their blind obedience to the trends and policies of the United States have managed to make the people of Sweden afraid of a very small number of America-hating Muslim extremists. These people are semi-literate thugs, half of whose ideology includes garbage like pro-wolf hunting to gain attention and the other half based on the single ideal of recoiling in fear and disgust from people who are different rather than trying to integrate with and learn from them.Their supporters are prideful, frustrated, depressed, rebellious and lonely people stupid enough to look for a simple answer to all their problems and a simple solution that lets them feel in control of their lives. I know one such supporter personally, to my sadness.
That was rather more rant-like than I had planned, but therapeuthic. Thanks for reading.