Hi...I am a bit tired so hopefully I will make some sense. I am not sure that I can confess being a beneficiary of much while there. I went to Sweden because I wanted to work in socialized medicine and the culture and allocation of the funding they had seemed to suit my idealistic views at the time. The benefits from living there were the decompressed schedule, affordable childcare and relaxed environment. What i ran into (which could fill volumes), I did not expect. I do not particularly follow one political ideology over the other and lean to a more social liberal view with a fiscal conservative spin-but that was in the day when I thought that the two could co-exist. I do not profess to know all there is in the current world of politics as I was pretty isolated with my job and a young child while in Sweden. I do know that there are different parts of what work in europe and apply it here in the US without compromising anyones political views-for example: pharmacies have drugs prepackaged in 1 or 3 month supplies, they are bar coded. You go to the pharmacy give them the prescrition,and in 15 minutes (max for me-4 meds) you have your drugs and they are triple bar coded so that no labeling error occurs. It cuts out a lot of middle men, pill counting and errors as well as save time and money. Bringing it across the atlantic would mean loss of jobs (wealthy distributors and warehouses) but the cost gets passed on to the consumer. Also, the ergonomics in the work place are brilliant there...I sit at a microscope for hours a day- here after 2 hrs I am a hurting unit, there I could sit for ten hrs and no fatigue. So it does not always have to do with ideology to share and learn from one another, it had a lot to do with finding what can work and apply it.
Sharon
On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 11:07 PM, studio <tlack@hotmail.com> wrote:
On Jun 11, 9:40 am, Sharon Fuentes <oneforentr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well said Keith....
>
> I lived in Sweden and there are some similarities with Germany. The racism
> in Sweden is often subtle because the Swedes like to be percieved as
> progressive and "tolerant". Every time I needed assistance they assumed I
> was from the Middle East and was systematically treated like a second class
> citizen even though i paid a huge amount in taxes (40% income alone).
> Living in Europe has its advantages as you have pointed out but they come at
> a high cost and I too had private insurance but was funneled into the
> public system for things such as an MRI and that took 5 months. I do not
> know how much longer Sweden can sustain its economy where the taxes are so
> high, there is basically economic heterogeneity with minimal real and
> obtainable wealth. Those with the most money are either from old money
> before the push for a true social deomcracy or damn clever/lucky to have a
> successful start up. Any person who is a professional; lawyers, doctors,
> engineers etc-are paid less than American standards.
>
> Unless someone has been in a culture or an environment speculation about the
> realities are best laid to rest because it is to complex and the percieved
> reality that many have about Europe (Sweden) are often wrong. Many people
> are enamoured when I say I lived there but they are shocked when I tell
> them what it was really like.
Sharon, that's all fine and dandy, but you have zero idea of how these
"free market types" want to actually run the US economy.... or should
I say plunder it?
You talk about how you had to wait 5 months for an MRI ... how about
just not having one unless you can pay for it?
You talk about subtle racism in Sweden ... how about it being open and
not serving anyone they deem not worthy?
Because that's what it's really all about with these people.
You. and even they, may have some good points, the problem is; you
have to buy into the whole social conservative philosophy that effects
everyone, and not just the little part that you think benefits just
you.
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