Sweden, Shocking News from

["John Gelles" <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

	This news from Sweden which I now believe to
	be true and is contrary to what I had always thought
	is shocking.   Per and Sven owe to us to send a brief
	letter to the New York times on the wreckage of lives
	Thatcherism has wrought in your country.  Many here
	used to say, Sweden is the best managed place on
	Earth, and that only the weather was off -- causing
	more suicide than in a warmer clime.  Now, we
	in the USA ought to here the truth about Thatcherism
	in practice Swedish style.  If Friedmanism or
	Chicagoism, or Bundesbankism is a better adjective,
	please use it -- or any other word to capture this
	obsession with monopoly protecting austerity.

	John Gelles

----------
From: S R Larsson <larson@xxxxxx>
To: POST-KEYNESIAN THOUGHT <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Sweden -- Some Local Color Please
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 9:33 PM
....
1. About 40% of the Swedish households live on $15,000 per annum net tax or
less. The median household in America lives on nearly $40,000. That's
pre-tax, but you don't pay Swedish taxes...

2. There are about 500 000 people in Sweden who, officially, have nothing
to live on. No welfare, no income, no transfers from the public sector. A
considerable number of them get regular meals from charity organizations.
Many people living on welfare get so little they can't give their kids
three meals per day (this is a FACT).

3. People living on welfare are to an increasing extent being denied dental
care. Instead dentists simply pull the teeth out unless the patient is able
to pay for more expensive treatment. There are many known cases of medical
malpractice at hospitals due directly or indirectly to budget cutbacks. It
was recently estimated that hundreds of elderly people under public health
care simply starve to death every year because there is not staff enough to
help them eat. My wife works at an elderly care center and she can bear
daily witness about this phenomenon.

4. Drug abuse has exploded over the past few years. Teenagers smoke
heroine, take LSD and other heavy drugs to an extent never seen before.

5. The crime rate in Sweden has surged. Although some statistical bugs
makes it hard to compare directly, there was a study last year that placed
the number of crime victims in Sweden third among OED countries, behind
England and the US. Teenage gangs drift around in downtowns, rob and steal
and behave like anti-social animals. In Gothenburg alone (a city of 450 000
plus suburbs) there are 500 robbery assaults on individuals per year in the
downtown area only.  Add to that what goes on in the gang-ruled housing
project suburbs...

6. There is not union busting in Sweden. They don't need to bust unions.
They are proud of having contributed to low wages, "responsible" fiscal
policies (heavy budget slashing) and other features of modern Swedish
social and economic development.

7. I suppose it could be called business corruption when one family owns
all (yes, ALL) major export companies, pays for virtually all externally
financed research in economics and is eligible to frequent "secret"
meetings with the government.

	... Sven ...