The Swedish model
Having lived abroad now for almost a year I’ve come to realize certain important things about how politically different countries are and on what basics the political choices are made. Italy is undoubtedly much more capitalist than Sweden and that is obvious every day as you are watching the news or reading the newspapers. This is probably no surprise to you and everyone who has been to Italy knows that here prevails the idea of working for oneself and the idea of a state as being your friend or care-taker is very far-fetched. Having always been a socialist, grown up as I am in a left-wing family and having participated in all those manifestations of the eighties when we asked for amnesty and liberation for political prisoners, I never really did think much about the socialist politics. To me it has always seemed so normal to be a socialist and to think that that kind of politics is the only right one. Now after this year I realized that the social democratic party is loosing ground and that it has been that way for many years outside of Sweden. It is very disturbing that there is no longer anyone fighting for an alternative to capitalism and that even the socialism back home is not that supported anymore. I reckon that people have forgotten what’s so special about socialism and why we need to keep this opposition to capitalism strong. Socialism is as opposed to for example liberalism based on moral grounds. In other words this politic is based on “det allra bästa för de flesta möjliga (publicity of the Swedish social democratic party 1990s). It is often argued that socialism limits a person’s possibility of having a career or making much money. This argument can only be used by someone who is not aware of the though behind the system. The Swedish model created in the 50s based on the ides of Keynes (keeping inflation low to create a capital) and the Rehn-Meidner model (taxing the population to spread the wealth) was of course not created so that Swedish individuals would make much money. This is why the social democratic party in Sweden is special in Europe. The basic ideas are obviously to share and to support one another. The real question is why people so often are thinking about themselves and the money they could make? How come capitalism has anchored itself so strongly in people’s minds? Why are so few people ready to share and support (financially) others? (Although they have more money than ever before) Young people in today’s Sweden are actually very capitalistic in this way. Even a lot of people studying at the University of Uppsala are not aware of how unique the Swedish socialist system and the Welfare state are. I invite everyone to think about this.
posted by Hannah Kimland @ 5:15 PM
1 Comments:
At 15:03,
Anonymous said…
Hej Hannah och tack för inbjudan till din politiska diskussion! (såklart att jag måste göra ett inlägg ;))Den svenska modellen är ju inte bara beundrad inom landet som skapade den, utan är ett föredöme också hos personer i många andra länder, vilket olika beklagande kommentarer gjorde tydligt när Alliansen vann valet. (vilket i sin tur gav mig viss förståelse för att amerikaner irriterar sig på europeer som tror sig kunna diktera villkoren i den amerikanska politiken). Men de borgerliga har som bekant tappat mycket förtroende bland folk sedan i höstas och det sägs att en starkt bidragande orsak till att socialdemokraterna alls förlorade valet var att många var trötta på GP. Och utan att uttala mig emot socialdemokraternas politik så tror jag att det var bra med ett maktskifte. Faktum är att jag personligen först under min utlandsvistelse på allvar insett hur bra den svenska modellen egentligen är och hur mycket vi har att tacka sossarna för. Men, politik är inte enkel! Tack vare den fria marknaden (och människans frihet att bli rik på sin egen framgång) har vi billiga mediciner och god sjukvård (som ändå relativt många relativt fattiga kan ta del av), datorer (!), en upptäckt glob och mycket mer som jag inte tror skulle blivit framforskat eller upptäckt om det inte varit för att samhället präglats av liberalism. Hmm, det är därför jag tycker det är så svårt att välja vad jag ska rösta på, men jag håller med om att vi bör uppskatta vår fina svenska modell! Tror du socialdemokraterna kommer tillbaka i valet om tre år med Mona Sahlin, Hannah? Jag tror faktiskt det, åtminstone av dagens stämning att döma (ja, det jag har tagit del av...). Ha det gott! Kram från landet som skapade the only true Folkhem
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