Socialism Producing Innequality, Who'd Have Thought It?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22650267
So the Swedish socialists have finally run out of other peoples money to spend! The collapse of the once shinning example of socialism now surely shows how flawed the whole thing is.

[modeller]

Not only in Sweden . That's been the story of the EU from its inception.

[jake-the-peg]

Sorry to rain on your parade but Sweden has had a centre right government since 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrik_Reinfeldt

So will you now except that the 'flawed thing' is centre Right politics?

[ToraToraTora]

yes if they actually dropped socialism but they didn't. Sweden is still one of the best country's in the world for getting away with not contributing.

[ToraToraTora]

It's like Labour comming to power in 1997, they knew they couldn't get away with actually doing Labour type things so they converted to whatever they thought would keep them, in power. (they preconverted of course!).

[Sqad]

Jake...you may of course be right.....however, my understanding is that the "new " party elected in 2006 "moved to the centre......which is quite different from a "centre right party"

One would presume it means that it has "moved from the left."

[slaney]

There don't seem to be many left-leaning governments in Europe.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/euchart

[jake-the-peg]

panic panic panic

spin spin spin

Oh dear!

We have a right wing Tory economic policy that has focussed its entire efforts on maintaining our AAA credit rating - that was their top priority.

They failed

They failed because the private sector got too scared to create growth or because the credit restrictions the government imposed meant that any with enough confidence couldn't finance growth.

As per usual they cut too hard and too fast for dogmatic reasons trying to drive Britain to a small government model and the result has been recession.

No surprise there - every Tory PM since McMillan has lead this country into a recession

[Sqad]

Sorry Jake.......I thought you were talking about Sweden

\\\\\Sorry to rain on your parade but Sweden has had a centre right government since 2006 \\\\

[jake-the-peg]

That's a rather naughty chart slaney.

Those relationships may be valid but you could draw the axies at any arbitary point.

The site itself is unattributed - nobody seems to be sure of the people behind it and it does seem to have a particular slant to it.

Seeing as I point out dirty journalistic right wing tricks I'd be remiss if I didn't point out some rather suspect tactics on that site too

[jake-the-peg]

Yes Squad - that's Sweden since 2006 - not Sweden in 1973 - you might have nodded off for a bit

[ToraToraTora]

good attempt to divert jake but can we talk about the actual news story.

[Sqad]

Sorry Jake.........

\\Under Reinfeldt's leadership, the Moderate Party has adjusted its position in the political spectrum, moving towards the centre\\

He, Reinfeldt, was elected in 2002 and that is a quote from the link that you gave.

Have I git it wrong Jake?

[Octavius]

I read somewhere that Sweden has more private ownership than most other European countries. Around 80% of all new schools are privately run, as are the railroads and underground systems. It doesn't sound very socialist.

[jim360]

All systems tend to produce inequality. Socialism is perhaps particularly stupid because it tries to correct it by "Robin Hood" methods, but we have inequality under a right-wing system of government too.

[bazwillrun]

Is this the same Sweden that currently has riots in the streets Husby amongst other places, with extremely high immigrant populations, similar to the recent ones here...

I see its not getting much coverage over here

who'd a thought it

[FredPuli43]

If you are looking for inequality, that well-known socialist country, the United States of America, is the place to look.

[ToraToraTora]

er USA, socialist?? You mean the EUSSR surely.

[FredPuli43]

Tora, are you incapable of seeing a deliberate choice of the opposite adjective in order to make a point? Your argument is that inequality demonstrates that socialism has failed. Since there is far worse inequality in the USA , either that country is socialist (no, it isn't) or its system fails more badly than socialism in Sweden does.

[Sqad]

Fred...;-)...your points are well taken.

A system can only fail if it had existed in the first place.

U.S.A has never been a Socialist country so Socialism in the USA cannot be an issue for inequality......we must look elsewhere.

Now Sweden, certainly was and still is a left of centre country and yet, there are riots concerning inequality.............in a Socialist Society.