Quote:
Originally posted by Liquor Dealer
The biggest drawback I see is the very large union membership - some, however; might see that as an advantage. I basically don't care for Socialism in any form.
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I would have to agree with you, at least partially. Some of the unions are still truly needed - many professions in the public sector are still severely underpaid - but for most professions within private companies, the unions have become more interested in their own power than their members. Some of them hold everybody back.
As for the public health-care, and such; some people actually see it as a freedom in Sweden. I'm stuck in between.
As for the US; it is very difficult to generalize. The differences in culture and style are huge within the country, even if one just looks at the anglo-caucasion population.
While the politics, and the religious pressure I've encountered in some smaller US towns would drive me insane, I really like the thought of hard work paying off. Liquor Dealer probably understands what I'm talking about, since he's been in Sweden. On the US' political scale, most Swedes would rate as flaming liberals.
And while I dislike the American style of patriotism, I really like the tendency to look at each US citizen as an American. In Europe, immigrants and their children are often stuck with the title "immigrant", like if it was a homogenous group of people.
As I've said before, I haven't met anybody that seriously hates the US and it's population. Your government and certain policies, on the other hand, are not liked. This isn't only G.W. Bush' fault, though. Madeline Albright's claim that Americans are worth more than everybody else because they are more enlightened, kind of made her impopular...