Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Apparently employment fell as much as 10% because of the same problems.
I don't have a problem with universal health care.....but free education, welfare, stuff like that? You should work for that.
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If it's a moral question, then sure--you're entitled to feel that way. But your claim was that having programs like this caused unemployment, and my contention is that the facts show that not to be true.
The financial crisis of the 1990s isn't what you think it is. According to wikipedia's page on Sweden, the crisis resulted from a change from anti-unemployment fiscal policy to anti-inflationary fiscal policy along with an international recession and a real estate bubble--much like the U.S.'s current fiscal woes, only they've added a war costing trillions of dollars to the mix just to make their predicament extra special. Nothing to do with an excessively generous welfare state.
It seems to me that the 10% drop in employment you refer to was really the outcome of the recession and not of the welfare state. In the end, some things were privatized but by North American standards a very generous welfare state remains in place in Sweden--and by all accounts it's working out just fine.