I guess if you consider the standard of living of your average citizen, the Sweden would be the one of the most successful countries in the world.
If you base success on the power of the ruling elite, it might fall short.
But this would be a much better world, if there were more Swedens.

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

I think I'm going to throw up soon from reading all the rosy descriptions of Sweden, but what the hell - another good thing about Sweden is that you can generally get a dual citizenship after five years. And that's pretty good in europe. If a foreigner wants to vote in Norway, for instance, he or she will have to give up their other citizenship first (also pretty unique in europe, I believe).. and you need to live in the country for a decade (without travelling outside for more than three months at a time, without being outside more than three years in total. No, seriously)..

(Of course, there's all kinds of ways to get a working permit, and so on in europe - but naturalisation is really difficult, and is based on the blood- right, or some variant of it). But.. this is hard for me, but.. we could definitively copy Sweden on the dual citizenship after five years.

Eric --- why did you start this post=?

You are right, This world would be a much better worrld if we were not going at war all the time. The Swedes have understood that and know how to distrisbute wealth fairly between their citizens.

Wealth comes from peace not from war.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Oh yeah? Sarco trigger happy seems like. Doubt Sweeds or Finns approve.

Only for the masses.

For the elites, war is far more widely profitable than peace.

Because socialist advocating some parts of the Swedish system are now in the governement and they presented their plans this Tuesday.

Finns were under the crown of danmark, Sweden, Russia. Yet every time managed to hold on its 4 episode of senate back 12 century like there was no crown..payed tax to none but itself. Russia had to relax and grant Finns freedome Finns'd take it anyway.

Finland have never been ruled by Denmark. The northern part of present day Estonia has, but that is as far north up the Baltic Sea the Danes came.

Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden until 1809, but the Finns were not subject to the Swedes. The Finnish provinces were legally equal to those of present day Sweden. The Finns thus had representation in the Swedish parliament. It was considered a vital part of the royal family members' education to learn Finnish.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I hope they know that we do not have a socialistic government.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I am not far from it, myself.

Sweden is a beautiful country with mostly decent people, but there are plenty of negative sides to the Swedish society:

- the taxes are way too high,
- political correctness is widely spread,
- people are ignorant of the world surrounding Sweden and therefore intolerant,
- people think higher of many things from abroad than of Swedish things (despite what I said above) and the term "un-Swedish" is used as a positive word to denote such exotic things,
- there is a general sentiment that you should not hold yourself up as a good example or be proud of what you do yourself,
- it is almost a Swedish national trait to complain.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.