On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, Cindy Hamilton wrote:

> On 2024-03-01, Bruce <Bruce@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 10:44:29 +0100, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, Bruce wrote:
>>>
>>>> A complete idiot. Trust Dave "Mucus" Smith and "D" to love him.
>>>
>>> Not at all. Just look at your wife or female friends and you'll see that
>>> it is true. Females are more chaotic than men who are more rational and
>>> orderly. This is based on biology and brain setup. Oh, and there are two
>>> genders determined by X and Y chromosomes.
>>>
>>> Don't be chocked Bruce, deep inside you knew all along! ;)
>>
>> Dinosaur boomer talk. Enjoy!
>
> I don't think D knows any women.

I know many beautiful women! I'm married to one and she cooks for me! =)

On 2024-03-01 4:36 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:

> Do you know what the "woke movement" really is about? Being fair
> to people who are different from oneself and not hurting them,
> mentally or physically.
>
> Stay woke, people.
>

It has gone a little overboard.

On 2024-03-01, D wrote:

> I know many beautiful women! I'm married
> to one and she cooks for me!

Excellent! Now we have a food-related subject we
can use to drive a wedge into your guts.

So the question is IKEA cafeteria Swedish Meatballs
vs. the ones your wife cooks for you. Your opinion?

Mike Duffy wrote:

> On 2024-03-01, D wrote:

>> I know many beautiful women! I'm married
>> to one and she cooks for me!

> Excellent! Now we have a food-related subject we
> can use to drive a wedge into your guts.

> So the question is IKEA cafeteria Swedish Meatballs
> vs. the ones your wife cooks for you. Your opinion?

"Only in the 1970s and 1980s did Sweden expand government dramatically... many of Sweden’s most important businesses, like IKEA and Tetra Pak, fled the country..."

Au contraire, Mike... let's keep this situation "on - topic", as I'd like to see D's opinion about the following:

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/profile/johan-norberg

Recent Research by Johan Norberg

The Mirage of Swedish Socialism: The Economic History of a Welfare State

— Aug 17, 2023

T"he Mirage of Swedish Socialism: The Economic History of a Welfare State" is a pre-release of an upcoming book by the Fraser Institute—part of a new multimedia project, The Realities of Socialism—written by Johan Norberg...

It shows that despite mischaracterizations by advocates of socialism outside the country, Sweden actually has a long history of comparatively small government, open markets, and competition, with only a temporary experiment with socialist policies in the 1970s and 80s..."

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/mirage-of-swedish-socialism-the-economic-history-of-a-welfare-state-parts-1-and-2

"Much of what the outside world thinks it knows about the Swedish model is wrong. When American politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez are asked to name an example of a successful socialist economy, they often point to Sweden...

Only in the 1970s and 1980s did Sweden expand government dramatically with more spending, taxation, and regulation. It is reasonable to say that during this time Sweden was moving towards socialism. But that was an aberration in Sweden’s history, an aberration that was not associated with success. On the contrary, this was the one period in modern economic history when Sweden lagged behind other industrialized countries...
Incentives for work and entrepreneurship were weakened, and welfare dependency increased. The private sector stopped creating jobs, real wages stagnated, and many of Sweden’s most important businesses, like IKEA and Tetra Pak, fled the country. Sweden ran large budget deficits every year and got stuck in a dangerous spiral of inflation, devaluations, and debts. It ended with a deep financial crisis in the early 1990s that included a brief period when the central bank interest rate rose to 500 percent.

At that time, Sweden’s political parties decided, often in consensus, to return elements of the older capitalist model. They deregulated the economy, reduced taxes, shrank government, and introduced a set of fiscal rules that has reduced public debt substantially. The pension system was reformed and many government-owned businesses were privatized. Sweden abolished taxes on wealth, gifts, and inheritances.

At the same time, Sweden became a pioneer in privatizing welfare services, making it possible for private providers to compete with public ones on similar terms and funding, and giving citizens the freedom to choose between different providers of elder care, health care, preschool, and education, including for-profit businesses. Around a fifth of all tax-funded welfare services are now provided by the private sector.

With the exception of the size of government, the Swedish economy is now more free-market-oriented than the US economy according to Economic Freedom of the World data. After the new reform period in the 1990s and early 2000s, Sweden once again started outperforming other industrialized countries economically, creating new companies and increasing real wages..."

Also, didya know that Sweden ranks *higher* on the Index of Economic Freedom than does the United States...and so does CANADA...???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom:

The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index claim to take an approach inspired by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, that "basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society"

"The Swedish economy performs well in the key economic freedom pillars of rule of law and regulatory efficiency, facilitated by open-market policies that sustain dynamic trade and investment flows. The well-institutionalized regulatory and legal environment encourages entrepreneurial activity, but labor regulations are among Europe’s most rigid. Monetary stability has been well maintained, but inflationary pressure continues. Banking regulations are sensible, and lending practices have been prudent. The influx of large numbers of migrants since 2015 and rising gang violence have made immigration a central issue..."

Sweden's rank: 10

Canada: 14

USA: 25

Interestingly, the formerly communist states of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia (all once part of the old USSR), and the Czech Republic (former CSSR) rank HIGHER than the US on this index...

The top 10 are:

1. Singagpore
2. Switzerland
3. Ireland
4. Taiwan
5. New Zealand
6. Estonia
7. Luxembourg
8. NL
9. Denmark
10. Sweden

LOSERS:

Cuba: 178
Venezuela; 179
North Korea: 180

DISCUSS...!!!

:-D

--
GM

On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, Mike Duffy wrote:

> On 2024-03-01, D wrote:
>
>> I know many beautiful women! I'm married
>> to one and she cooks for me!
>
> Excellent! Now we have a food-related subject we
> can use to drive a wedge into your guts.
>
> So the question is IKEA cafeteria Swedish Meatballs
> vs. the ones your wife cooks for you. Your opinion?
>
>

Wifes, always. Ikea are ok but not great.

On 2024-03-01, Dave Smith <adavid.smith@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> On 2024-03-01 4:36 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>
>> Do you know what the "woke movement" really is about? Being fair
>> to people who are different from oneself and not hurting them,
>> mentally or physically.
>>
>> Stay woke, people.
>>
>
> It has gone a little overboard.

Has it? Have you been harmed or even inconvenienced by it?

--
Cindy Hamilton

On 2024-03-01 11:04 a.m., D wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, Mike Duffy wrote:
>
>> On 2024-03-01, D wrote:
>>
>>> I know many beautiful women! I'm married
>>> to one and she cooks for me!
>>
>> Excellent! Now we have a food-related subject we
>> can use to drive a wedge into your guts.
>>
>> So the question is IKEA cafeteria Swedish Meatballs
>> vs. the ones your wife cooks for you. Your opinion?
>>
>>
>
> Wifes, always. Ikea are ok but not great.

I am going to have to say Ikea. My wife has never made meatballs for me.
Any time we have made meatballs I am the one who made had to make them.
I have had Ikea meatballs a couple times and they aren't bad.

On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 13:29:10 +0100, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

>
>
>On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, Bruce wrote:
>
>> It has absolutely nothing to do with socialism. I know that Trump
>> zombies think it has, but I didn't know a Swede could also be this
>> poorly informed. Do you live in the US, perhaps?
>
>It has everything to do with socialism. It is just a more refined
>methodology since it doesn't work today, thanks to the blessings of
>capitalism, to exploit the worker/capitalist rivalry. Workers today have
>it too good to care.
>
>So new fronts are opened as per the message earlier.
>
>No not US, I left the hell-hole that is sweden (Trump was right btw, in
>his "last night in sweden" speech mainstream media to the contrary) for
>a more libertarian/conservative heaven in eastern europe. =)

People like you live in their own reality. That's why political
discussions are useless. Enjoy!

On Fri, 1 Mar 2024, GM wrote:

> Mike Duffy wrote:
>
>> On 2024-03-01, D wrote:
>
>>> I know many beautiful women! I'm married
>>> to one and she cooks for me!
>
>> Excellent! Now we have a food-related subject we
>> can use to drive a wedge into your guts.
>
>> So the question is IKEA cafeteria Swedish Meatballs
>> vs. the ones your wife cooks for you. Your opinion?
>
>
> "Only in the 1970s and 1980s did Sweden expand government dramatically...
> many of Sweden’s most important businesses, like IKEA and Tetra Pak, fled the
> country..."
>
>
> Au contraire, Mike... let's keep this situation "on - topic", as I'd like to
> see D's opinion about the following:
> https://www.fraserinstitute.org/profile/johan-norberg
>
> Recent Research by Johan Norberg
>
> The Mirage of Swedish Socialism: The Economic History of a Welfare State
....
> creating new companies and increasing real wages..."

Norberg is a great guy, and for the ones listening intently here, I
recommend to first read his book The Capitalist Manifesto, where he
explains the evils of socialism.

As for what he says, it is true from the 1800s something (if memory
serves) but then the socialists took over. Sweden was on steroids after
WW2 due to its collaboration with the Nazis which enabled sweden to
escape without being bombed out, so despite socialism sweden benefited
greatly. But, like socialists everywhere, they slowly strangle their
host and the crescendo, as Norberg points out, was in the 70s to 80s
where I think Astrid Lindgren had a tax rate of 103% or something like
that. She lost money working and she started the revolution of bringing
taxation down. This also led to many companies and brains fleeing the
country.

However, what Norberg misses or doesn't write home about is that current
tax levels are around 65+% making it extremely difficult for salaried
people to save money. Debt is soaring. So the state is rich, and the
public is living on debt.

Add to that, the enormous amount of imported immigrants which do not
show up in the statistics because the government has no control over
them, and the figures get even worse.

After ww2 a worker could afford a house and finance his families needs
while the wife could take care of the children. In todays sweden, due to
socialism, two people are required, and their debt i sky high.

Since taxes are so high, people cannot save and live on debt instead.
How can they borrow? Their apartments, due to swedens plan economy that
makes it difficult to build, and forbids renting out your apartment
(unless you are a big company) leads to soaring prices on apartments
which people then borrow against.

So no, as much as Norberg wants to show it, being swedish, sweden is
still a socialist paradise where politicians are rich and corruption
reigns supreme, and workers remain where they are.

Add to that retirement levels being raised to 72 (I think) and the
monthly retirement income dropping year by year as well as mandatory
public indoctrination of children (no home schooling).

> Also, didya know that Sweden ranks *higher* on the Index of Economic Freedom
> than does the United States...and so does CANADA...???
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom:
>
> The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995

That is actually nonsense if you view it with the default settings. If
you look at tax burden the list looks like this:

Top:
UAE
Bahrain
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Vanuatu

Bottom (leaving out N/A):
Denmark (worst)
Austria
Sweden
Belgium
Cuba

Who would have thought? Cuba better than sweden?

Then they removed a section about government size relative to the
private sector they had in previous years where sweden was in the bottom
as well. Too bad they removed that measuring point.

D wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, 29 Feb 2024, cshenk wrote:
>
> > Mike Duffy wrote:
> >
> > > On 2024-02-29, D wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Thu, 29 Feb 2024, Bruce wrote:
> > >
> > > > > I don't know who Jordan Peterson is, but I do know
> > >
> > > > ?
> > >
> > > Bruce is well-known for expressing opinions on
> > > things about which he is willfully ignorant.
> >
> > And insulting people who disagree with him. I don't think he's
> > missed anyone now. He's getting really popular in killfiles now.
> >
>
> I find him mildly entertaining. He has nothing rational to say, so I
> can't say I bother that much to read what he actually says, but his
> insults and dismissals when he has no arguments are quite fun. ;)

Maybe but I'm over it.

On Fri, 01 Mar 2024 19:39:19 +0000, "cshenk"
<cshenk@virginia-beach.net> wrote:

>D wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 29 Feb 2024, cshenk wrote:
>>
>> > Mike Duffy wrote:
>> >
>> > > On 2024-02-29, D wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > On Thu, 29 Feb 2024, Bruce wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > > I don't know who Jordan Peterson is, but I do know
>> > >
>> > > > ?
>> > >
>> > > Bruce is well-known for expressing opinions on
>> > > things about which he is willfully ignorant.
>> >
>> > And insulting people who disagree with him. I don't think he's
>> > missed anyone now. He's getting really popular in killfiles now.
>> >
>>
>> I find him mildly entertaining. He has nothing rational to say, so I
>> can't say I bother that much to read what he actually says, but his
>> insults and dismissals when he has no arguments are quite fun. ;)
>
>Maybe but I'm over it.

That'll teach me not to disagree with you. VERBOTEN!

On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 09:12:28 -0500, Dave Smith
<adavid.smith@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>On 2024-03-01 4:36 a.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>
>> Do you know what the "woke movement" really is about? Being fair
>> to people who are different from oneself and not hurting them,
>> mentally or physically.
>>
>> Stay woke, people.
>>
>
>It has gone a little overboard.

The underlying principles are often good, but the execution is
sometimes hysterical.