Privately owned guns save more lives than they take

[Jon Miller]

I will agree that Swedes value things less and vacation more.

The standard Swede takes 3 times as much vacation as the standard American.

When you calculate how much this 'benefit' is, it also significantly increases he pay (and yes, you can work a second job, it isn't France).

JM

[regexcellent]

More numbers time!

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=government+income+sweden+%2F+gdp+sweden%2C+government+income+united+states+%2F+gdp+united+states

The upshot: Sweden's government collects nearly 50% of GDP in taxes. Compare to 17% for the United States. Someone's paying that bill.

[Felch]

There are state taxes in the U.S. that take another chunk, but I don't think they bring us to Sweden's level.

[Hauldren Collider]

Not even California could come close to taxing 33% of its GDP. There aren't any states that have higher overall taxes than the feds.

[SlowwHand]

Texas has no state tax. No tax on food from a grocer.

[Jon Miller]

I payed 3k more than I would in the US, but I get healthcare with in Sweden.

In addition to a month extra vacation, which is worth quite a bit.

I admit that the people with high income in Sweden are taxed a lot.

JM

[kentonio]

Got to love Poly. You've got a guy here with personal experience of living in both countries getting shouted down by a couple of zealots who couldn't find Sweden on a map. Beautiful.

[rah]

How much free time to you get.
Please break it out. # of Holidays, # of Vacation Days, sick or personal time if you get it.
Time off is the most valuable item for me.

[regexcellent]

Got to love Poly. You've got a guy here with personal experience of living in both countries getting shouted down by a couple of zealots who couldn't find Sweden on a map. Beautiful.

a) Personal experience doesn't mean he's right. What I'm presenting are statistical facts which demonstrate that Swedes are poorer than Americans, which trumps his anecdotes.

b) I bet I could pwn you on sporcle

EDIT:



EDIT 2: In case it's not clear, start time was 10 minutes, meaning that took me 3 minutes 15 seconds

[Al B. Sure!]

So we're just going to discuss Sweden and ignore the fact that Medicaid exists?

I understand the income threshold for Medicaid is pretty low and that single adults with no dependents who don't fit in certain categories (disabled, etc.) have to look elsewhere (though many states, such as Pennsylvania, do have programs for that demographic)...

But let's not act like we haven't had a health program for our poorest citizens for decades now; a program that assists close to 50 million Americans.

And we still have crime.

[kentonio]

a) Personal experience doesn't mean he's right. What I'm presenting are statistical facts which demonstrate that Swedes are poorer than Americans, which trumps his anecdotes.

You're basing your position on some statistics that tell a very limited story. The reason I'm so confident you're wrong about this is that I've lived over in Norway myself and seen just how rich and safe and prosperous Scandinavia really is. The idea that they are some poverty stricken country because of their safety net is laughable, the safety net makes them as prosperous as they are. So many things that you guys take for granted paying for, don't cost anything there.

b) I bet I could pwn you on sporcle

I don't even know what that is.

[kentonio]

So we're just going to discuss Sweden and ignore the fact that Medicaid exists?

I understand the income threshold for Medicaid is pretty low and that single adults with no dependents who don't fit in certain categories (disabled, etc.) have to look elsewhere (though many states, such as Pennsylvania, do have programs for that demographic)...

But let's not act like we haven't had a health program for our poorest citizens for decades now; a program that assists close to 50 million Americans.

And we still have crime.

Yet last time I checked 20,000 Americans a year were dying due to a lack of healthcare and nearly a million a year going bankrupt because of medical costs. You're not really trying to claim the US does a good job of looking after its poorest citizens are you?

[Jon Miller]

Vacation+holiday is 25+11 (minimum?) in Sweden, I know I had more

Even in physics I was expected to go home at 5pm (I didn't) and not to work weekends (the university discouraged people working evenings/weekends)

"Swedish workers topped the European vacation rankings, entitled to an average of 33 paid vacations days in 2006 - close to 7 weeks, not counting public holidays."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/world/europe/20iht-sweden.4.7186705.html

"But voices are now growing louder, saying that these changes do not go far enough. The EU study showed that, compared with the Swedes' entitlement of 33 days of paid vacation in 2006, Germans had 30, Italians had 28 and Estonians, who ranked last, had 20.

(These numbers include the statutory minimum paid leave, as well as days added by collective bargaining agreements, but not public holidays. Not all EU countries are included in the study, since the way of gathering data relating to vacations is different in a way that makes comparisons difficult.)

Even more strikingly, Americans had, on average, only nine days of paid vacation in 2006, according to a recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. That discrepancy is, in large measure, because the United States has no statutory minimum of paid vacation days."

That is an average of 9 weeks of paid vacation a year.

Remember, time is money. In most countries, you can work a second job if you really value money (or over time).

JM
(Also if a Swedish holiday is on a Tuesday/Thursday, they get the Monday/Friday off too... adding a couple of days of holiday some years.)

[Al B. Sure!]

Yet last time I checked 20,000 Americans a year were dying due to a lack of healthcare and nearly a million a year going bankrupt because of medical costs. You're not really trying to claim the US does a good job of looking after its poorest citizens are you?

I'm saying we already have programs. They could maybe expand coverage a bit (but not to the level of middle class entitlements!) but when our very poorest have free medical care, we're already doing what you and Cockney are saying we should be doing.

The programs are there and people are using them yet we still have crime. The argument Cockney was trying to make doesn't seem valid.

[rah]

I got 20(vac)+10(personal)+10(holiday) last year so that's only one week less, but more is always better