On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 12:31 PM, Laurence Shute <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > When I was a graduate student in economics at what is now the University of > Stockholm in 1957-58, there was more private ownership in Sweden than in the > United States. And, I'm sure my Canadian cousin (Stratford, Ontario) will > be pleased to learn that Canada is a "mix of socialism and communism" -- at > least in terms of the human development index. >
It is all relative. I am sure, to someone from the late 1800's, even today's US economy would look highly socialist. Canada and Sweden both have government health care, don't they? Does that not qualify as partly socialist? I happen to know that Sweden has extremely liberal labor laws. I used to work for a Swedish multinational in the US: while US employees had 3 weeks of vacation a year, Swedish employees got more than a month and a half. Also if Swedish employees lost their jobs, their severance pay and government payments give them full pay for 15 months or longer. Hell, even speeding tickets are charged progressively in Sweden. Real-world economies are not black or white. They are all simply different shades of grey. I am sure even the most dedicated radicals are not seeking to eliminate private property entirely. Here's the HDR statistics: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/ -raghu. -- "To be or not to be. That's not really a question." _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
