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

To: Taro who wrote (1064210)	4/7/2018 6:37:56 PM
From: RetiredNow	1 Recommendation Recommended By Mick Mørmøny Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577019

LOL. No, not yet. My wife and I plan to visit Denmark, Norway, and Sweden soon, though. My first foray into the Nordic countries was to Iceland. Fantastically beautiful. Loved every minute of it, but was surprised by the high cost of food in particular, which lead me to ask a lot of questions about their economy. As usual, I couldn't help asking the locals and our tour guides what they think of their system of government. Many people there have been influenced by Americans in many ways. That surprised me, but they said it goes back to when Americans were stationed there during WWII. The Socialist taxes hit them hard, though. Also, the import restrictions. Tourism is reviving the economy and they did some very Austrian economic things in their banking industry to correct from the financial crisis lows, which allowed their economy to recover faster. But it was interesting to her the locals talk with mixed feelings about socialism. They like the free stuff, but also recognize the tax burden and high cost of living makes it hard for them to rise above the daily treadmill. Their wages aren't keeping pace. I wished I had more time and was traveling in my capacity as an executive at my former tech company. I may have been able to talk to a different cross section of people and get further into what is going right and wrong over there. Either way, the people I talked to are not nearly as "happy" about their politico-economic system as Americans say they are. In addition, they seem to be a lot more realistic about the pluses and minuses, whereas, our American Democrats/Socialists only seem to talk about perceived positives without any clue as to the costs. It made me hopeful, because every time I go to countries with a lot of socialism, the people almost always have plenty to say about the negatives, which means, they aren't as brainwashed as Americans are. I get it, though. Americans are going through hard times. They want something different...a way out. Socialism is the siren call of heroin. It seems like it would feel good, but if you never think of the negatives, you may find yourself in far worse condition than you think you already are in. Socialism is a drug that leads to the destruction of everything you hold dear. Freedom, prosperity, the dignity of living by the effort of your own hands, freedom from others telling you what you must do from day to day. Socialism makes us all "equal in our poverty", as the Cubans like to say.