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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (151226)	9/10/2002 12:56:34 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1586426

Oddly enough, the most economically successful countries in Western Europe have been the most socialist (Sweden) and the most capitalist (Switzerland). What do they have in common? They have both insisted upon neutrality and maintain relatively small defense establishments. Good point...........I don't know a lot about Switzerland's economy. Is it still strong? I was surprised when Swissair got into trouble, and understood at that time that the Swiss economy was not as solid as it once was. Part of the problem with making empirical comparisons is that one has to factor in a myriad of data, which is difficult. For example, France has a pretty high per capita income, but a much lower standard of living than the United States. Not being familiar with Sweden directly, I cannot say if that is true there as well, but it might be, if social programs are costlier than need be, or benefit too narrow a portion of the population, while taxes are high. All of that is true. What I like about their systems is that there is more of a safety net for the very poor. Health care is still available even when you have no money. That works well so long as its not abused. I understand from my German friends that of late there has been abuse of the unemployment benefits in that country. I think those economies get into trouble when that kind of behavior is allowed to run rampant and not curtailed. ted