Stockholm

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Swedes are mental for old American iron, in my experience

Norway probably even more so, I saw muscle cars everywhere when i was in Norway

[Otter74]

A good friend of mine is Swedish and lives in Stockholm. He is a producer for the national nightly news program. I met him when he came to Detroit for a month years ago - his union (unions are widespread and strong in Sweden) had an annual award where they basically gave you a chunk of money and you could go do whatever you wanted exploring with it. He had always wanted to see Detroit, so he spent a month there. He has a nice apartment in Ulrikagatan (I think) and drives a Golf. Owns a country house with his mother and brother. Tons of vacation. Pays about 30% of his salary in taxes, health benefits as above (about 30 bucks to see a doctor, 10 a day if you're in the hospital for something; says the health system is somewhat underfinanced so it's hard to staff it but the health care itself is excellent.)

American car culture is huge in Sweden. I didn't spend a lot of time outside of Stockholm but one Saturday night stumbled into a huge cruise scene that took place every weekend for months in Sveavegen (sp?). And of course there is Power Big Meet out in the boonies, the largest American-car show anywhere.

[gordner]

Originally Posted by dw1

I was never a resident of Sweden, but my company is headquartered there and I spent a lot of time working with the folks in Sweden, and spending time there and in Germany.

Like living in any major city, Stockholm is relatively expensive, but based on my observations & discussions with residents a "regular Joe" can have a good life outside of the expensive parts of the city. Better yet, outside of the city itself. Notably, boats as "toys"are a big thing (and relatively common) in some parts of Sweden. It appears from my observations that Sweden is not as "car culture" oriented as the US (or Germany).

It appears that the European taxes that are emphasized by media in the US are overstated. We had some folks residing in the US (Bergen County, NJ) for several years, and they pointed out that when they combined local, state and federal taxes & fees they were paying in the US, they were actually paying more here than in Europe for a similar lifestyle. One point they made was that there were not so many different entities with their hands out back home. Admittedly, NJ's property taxes are notoriously expensive, but it did make for an interesting comparison.

I often travel to the states for work, and the subject of taxes always comes up. I have been consistently surprised to do the math and find out that our relative effective tax rates are very very comparable. And that is without adding in what you guys pay for health insurance.

[KNS]

I think the difference between Sweden and the US is that there are far more productive, contributing members of society in Sweden.

The US has too many living off the Govt tit (in one form or another) sucking the tax base dry.

[svandamme]

I doubt you can compare the USA to any single EU member state.
Sure, the USA is technically a country and for foreign affairs, it has a single policy and military, but the States in the US are probably as diverse as the EU member states are diverse.

Sweden isn't representable for the EU just as much as California or Alaska isn't representable for the USA..

[livi]

Just hurry up to visit. Soon you will need an arab interpreter..

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by svandamme

I doubt you can compare the USA to any single EU member state.
Sure, the USA is technically a country and for foreign affairs, it has a single policy and military, but the States in the US are probably as diverse as the EU member states are diverse.

Sweden isn't representable for the EU just as much as California or Alaska isn't representable for the USA..

That's a pretty good observation. There are a lot of states in the US that I would not live in for one reason or another. I would indeed choose another country over a few states.

[beepbeep]

Originally Posted by svandamme

Sweden isn't representable for the EU just as much as California or Alaska isn't representable for the USA..

Sweden is comparable to Denmark in most aspects. Denmark actually has higher tax rate than Sweden. BNP per capita is similar, so are social benefits. Norway is also similar, except for oil income allowing them to have even more benefits.

So there is nothing special about Sweden from Nordic perspective.

[svandamme]

well sure but that doesn't make it sensible to compare a region or country in Europe, to a collection of states

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That's a pretty good observation. There are a lot of states in the US that I would not live in for one reason or another. I would indeed choose another country over a few states.

It's the fallacy of many discussions on this and other places of discussions.

Even in Europe most folks make the same mistake, when talking about "americans" over something they read in the news on a shooting or gun laws. you know hype sensation news, just like you guys i'm sure have on fox about europe..


There's no such thing as a standard "American" nor is there a standard "European"
It's a union of states and each state has it's unique traits and culture.. Maybe a bit more in Europe because of the various languages.. but even in within the US the language changes a great deal.
Anytime I get somebody from New York they talk fast, almost mumble. Very hard to understand what they say and it's not my ability to speak/understand English, just poor pronunciation and talking to fast.
South is slow more song to their talking. Much easier to converse with.

In europe I'de rather cal Nordic, cause they will speak better English then say Spain, and well Spaniards make it sounds like speaking English physically hurts em, they hate it even though in general they speak better english then the French (who are just not confident bout speaking english, they aren't to bad at it.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

The 'world's safest city' for 2021 revealed

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Brrr

No pokies? That ain't normal.