Red

Oops, sorry I missed that "little" detail about gas prices. It is, unfortunatley, per litre. I sure wouldnt mind if the price were per american gallon. The alternative transportations are bus, train and subway. In the larger cities like stockholm it even works fine, if you can live with some delays. The result of this, however, is not that people drive less(unless there a big advatage with the alternative transportations). I think driving your own car is highly prioritized by most people, and to counter some of the gas prices you can always buy a car with good fuel economy. Housing is very expensive, at least near or in the cities. Some years ago the politicians came up with the idea that you can put a tax on houses. People were told that it only was a temporary sollution to solve the budget. Today it´s still there, and you rarely hear any complains. The main reason for the high prices is however that there´s to few houses. I´m not quite sure why, but one of the reasons is probably that politicians wont sell land to build on. It´s hard to get a permit to build. It´s hard to tell exactly where the prices lie, because it varies so much depending on where you wanna live. In the more expensive places in stockholm you can get an apartment, 2-3 rooms, for ~$1,000,000. In the suburbs the same sized apartment would cost somwhere between $20,000-$100,000 - all depending on the neighbourhood, cloesness to the city etc. If you just want to rent the same apartment it would perhaps cost you $1000/month. Of course you can also live in a smaller place, maybe for students, which can cost less than half. Houses in or near civilization can cost from $250,000 and up. Remember this is just an aproximation to give you some kind of and idea what the prices are. It´s not very accurate since there are so many factors that effect them. Oh, and just so I don´t give you the picture of an socialist hell, I must say that life is very good despite stupid politics. It´s not an Soviet Socialist Republic, we just need more laissez-faire.

I just got a link to this thread from a friend and just had to register. Hopefully I will find the rest of this forum as interesting. As you probably would have guessed i´m also from sweden, and sadly I have to say it´s a socialist paradise - or at least, it´s going that way. I think you can imagine what i mean by that. The reason why so many socalists admire the political system is because it´s such a complex piece of "engineering". Making everything work as good as it does is a very impressive feat, in a very sad and tragic way. However, telling you everything that´s screwed up in this country would be too time consuming, so let me just comment on some of the things earlier mentioned: Education and healthcare: The number of private actors is kept to a minimum. When it comes to education, however, I would say the biggest problems are of a philosophical nature. Even if the schools are poor, money won´t help the students learn. And even if the teachers are to few, more teachers won´t improve the quality of their teachings. The healthcare system is extremely bureucratic and can´t handle the pressure. You can, for example, sit in the emergency waiting room for five hours with a crushed ankle - like my brother had to do. Old people are, in some places, litterally rotting away in their beds because noone has got the time to see to their needs. And while the public healthcare fails politicians talk about how important it is that public actors won´t compete and win customers from their precious little public hell. Private actors also get punished by unions for being to good. Oh, and speaking about unoins; here we have the right to join any unoin, but not necesseraily the right not to join them. Taxes: The income tax for the middle class is around 30%(richer people pay more taxes). But then your employer pays tax just for hiring you, and you pay 25% tax on everything you buy(with some exceptions). I think the totalt tax pressure is around 70% for a normal income. Prices: Gas costs ~$1,6. A new BMW 525 costs ~$54,000. I´m counting that $1 is 6,5 kronor, so you can just compare the prices. Cars are, by the way, one of the most expensive things around here. Politicians hate them and they are probably few who even know how to drive them. It´s sometimes tough being an enthusiast... Something I think tells more about the prices here are the food prices, which are the highest in europe. Beer, wine, booze etc. is extremely expensive due to government monopoly and taxation. However, that does not stop people from drinking. Why Atlas hasn´t shrugged yet: Unfortunatley, there´s no Galt´s Gulch. Atlas doesen´t have much choice but to go on wherever he is. There´s not much use to move to another country. Now I hope you will ask lots of interesting questions. I also hope that you will excuse my rusty english - i´m a little out of practice.