Bigdave all you have to do is look at criminal statistics among whites and blacks. The difference is stunning.
You are not Buffet , you are a peniless wellfare hopefull . Very classy, definitely Hussein Obama's material .
"PPP is a good measure, and I regard 20% as a good bit lower. It was much lower at the peak of their crisis in 1994 when the welfare state had taken them to the brink." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You obviously don't understand what PPP is -- it is only valid if the price comparisons are constant. It has been shown that in many if not most cases they aren't. PPP attempts to account for differences in cost of living, it is much more accurate. The CIA uses it compare military budgets for instance and it is much more accurate than nominal. There is some degree in subjectivity, but using bald exchange rates certainly isn't the best measure. The bottom line is they have less disposable income due to high taxes and overhead, it has gotten better but they still lag. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So guess what kind of 'change' they made? Barack Obama's kind? well no- cuts, cuts, cuts, in social welfare. That's how they balanced their budget. let's see what they are doing today... Is that the kind of change that Obama could ever believe in? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's the kind of changes you can make if you balance the budget. You totally misunderstood, they were very deep in debt in the 90s and had no choice but to make deep cuts in their welfare- that's what I was saying. The cuts and the competitivenes measures (tax cuts) continue to this day. How did they get like that? The welfare state model began around 1970 starting with a country that ranked third in the world in GDP/capita nominal. Now think about it- Sweden had no military to speak of, no wars, no huge minority population to deal with, etc. but in 20 short years a rich and successful society managed to ruin themsleves with their jump into socialism. They had to raise their overnight rate at one point to 500%! This was a highly developed western nation. There only way out was to backrack on the welfare state starting in the 90s and institute the very policies that TRUE conservatives (not republicans) exhort. Yet here we are with the Pelosi-Obama group ready to take us down that destructive path while Sweden quietly has recognized it was a deluded crock of shit. Good for sweden on balancing their budgets, we'll see how they waether this storm hitting us. They are an export economy highly dependent on other countries who have people with the disposable income to buy their high priced Volvos. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Economist Quality of Life Index: Sweden: Rank 5 United States: Rank 13 Quality of life index my ass, who the hell wants to go there? Those rankings are BS anyway, the percentage difference is so small that it is meaningless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The rankings aren't subjective, the Economist Quality of Life index is purely mathematical and Sweden wins. There is 'no subjectivity' in any quality of life index, are you friggen kidding me?? Just how the hell does anyone know what brings quality to my life? Is Climate in there? on Climate alone I rank Sweden in the bottom 25%. It's all a matter of what you choose to throw in the index and how you weight it- in other words it's purely subjective. here's one that ranks Sweden lower http://www.il-ireland.com/il/qofl06/index.php but so what? and I'll bet you money that if you look at the percentage difference of the absolute score in your survey it will render any difference meaningless.
jonbig, you are still hung up on the top 20% getting roughly equal benefits (while they basically pay for all of it) per person. But why should they get less as it is set up? SSI is not means tested and the the top 20% all pay the max and therefore get the max. I don't think SSDI is means tested as well. If you looked at medicaid and state and local welfare, you would a much higher distribution towards the lower quintiles.
Alright, if PPP is useful in this case, what is the PPP of one dollar spent in the US for an appendix operation versus the amount spent in Sweden for an appendix operation? That's right, there is no equivalent because there is no cost in Sweden. What is the PPP for the Big Mac Index for the two countries? If you said that Sweden's Big Mac Index is 43% higher than the dollar, then you're right. Using PPP in the two countries is ridiculous. The prices don't correlate very well at all, as you can see above. http://www.theglobalguru.com/article.php?id=97&offer=guru001 They still have an excellent social system, cuts or no. Far more socialistic than the US. Then you should show an article from the 90's and not 2008. Have you ever been to Sweden? For you to post that they've ruined themselves in any way is so beyond ridiculous that you've had to deny that their per capita income is higher than the US -- AND they don't have to pay health insurance premiums. During the financial crisis in the 90's, I take it. I take it you haven't read the articles stating that the US should use the "Swedish model" during this financial crisis as it was highly sensible. Ahhh... so Sweden isn't actually socialist and doesn't have a massive welfare state, they're actually non-socialist because they've learned the errors of their ways. There are nine inputs into the Economists' model, none of which are subjective. They then use multivariate regression to calculate the input's impact on life satisfaction. Is multivariate regression subjective? Not to me, it isn't. !!! That site doesn't disclose its methodology -- in fact, here's a page from the site -- please click on it and tell me what it says: http://www.il-ireland.com/il/ Here's the main page: http://www.il-ireland.com/ As you can see your "reference" (and I'm being generous by describing it as a reference) is a joke. I appreciate that you want to cherry pick anything -- and obviously that means ANYTHING -- that might agree with you -- even an incomplete site from an unknown source built from a quick web page creator program with an unknown methodology. But come on -- there are three countries that are described as socialist, and unless your described budget cuts eliminated their cradle to grave system, they are still socialist.