[lbo-talk] The new Sweden

[ken hanly]

 I asked a chap based in Sweden whether the social safety net was being torn apart in Sweden. He did not say too much about that but he did provide some interesting links re feelings about immigrants and praise for the new Sweden from a right win rag in the U.S.

Cheers, ken

For some 'light reading' on the country now impersonating Sweden, you might look at:

'We never had a single conversation with a Swede'
http://www.thelocal.se/35404/20110815/

'Immigrants in Sweden are treated as a homogenous, deviant group'
http://www.thelocal.se/36084/20110912/

and, from that wonderful rag of the Right that made headlines at Washington's Smithsonian, the American Spectator, a 'love letter' to Sweden...

The article ends by observing: Nonetheless, it's surely paradoxical -- and tragic -- that a small Nordic country which remains a byword for its (at times obsessive) commitment to egalitarianism has proved far more willing than America to give economic liberty a chance. 
 
'Free Market Sweden, Social Democratic America' - from the decidedly 'Right-wing' magazine 'The American Spectator'
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/29/free-market-sweden-social-demo
When American Spectator writes love letters to Sweden, it's no wonder we have a party with neo-Nazi roots in parliament.  And, xenophobia is alive, well, and running wild, fueled by scapegoating immigrants for the pain of the neoliberal programs here.

 
Blog:  http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
Blog:  http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html