
I don't know much about Scandinavia, so I won't throw any stones at them, but if that is true, it does lend credence to the belief that socialism does indeed cost a lot of other people's money....
@Nadir, I am not being snarky, nor mean any disrespect, but Cuba is hardly a ringing endorsement for whatever system they have, which I thought was communism. I am quite unsure of the practical differences between socialism and communism, so you may very well be correct. I remember a year or so back, there was some glitch in the banking system either there(Cuba) or here, and the money that family members living in the US was sending to relatives in Cuba was fouled up for some time....it just about brought the Cuban economy to it's knees, if I recall. Sorry, I can't find any links to back that up; I just remember there was a big stink about it.
The reason I am even interested in all this is that I am at the point in my life where I am re-examining many of my assumptions. We are taught that capitalism is "good", and communism and socialism is "bad", but nothing is simple, nor black and white. When one, for a moment, sets aside their bedrock assumptions and looks at things with an unbiased (as much as possible) viewpoint, it is quite frightening. I'm not sure what to do about it...I doubt I can do anything about it personally, but I am having long dinner-time discussions with my sons about this and other things. I want them to try to cast off the blinders of society's dogma and open their eyes. Who knows, maybe they can make a difference....
Sorry to ramble on......
