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I’ve heard lots of people on the left wax socialist about how “socialism has succeeded in Sweden!” —the one country they seem to think they can cite as a perfect example of where “socialism has worked!” (notwithstanding reality). And similarly (or in contrast, I’m not sure), sensible conservative folks like me in Canada and the U.S. sometimes make the argument that our governments are causing our countries to become nothing short of “socialist Sweden”. I’ve actually used the comparison to Cuba or the old Soviet Union more often as I think it’s more accurate.
Just today, the venerable Drudge Report cites some more examples in its current eye-opener thing that they do. Sean Hannity often makes this exact comparison on his Fox News Channel show.
So the article below about rescuing the GM-owned but erstwhile Swedish car maker SAAB makes for an interesting look at the reality of how things are actually moving, in all three countries. It is a fun dose of reality to see how actually, “socialist” Sweden has utterly no interest in auto-maker bailouts, even as they are here in the “capitalist” United States and Canada.
…Sweden’s centre-right government reiterated Wednesday that it had no intention of taking over the beleaguered Saab automaker despite a warning from owner GM that the unit could file for bankruptcy protection “as early as this month” unless it received Swedish help.
“The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories,” Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson told reporters in Stockholm.
“We are not prepared to risk the taxpayers’ money … This is not a game of Monopoly,” she said, pointing out that GM had barely made a profit from Saab in the two decades it had controlled the unit.
It was unreasonable to expect the Swedish government to succeed where the world’s biggest car maker had failed, especially in light of the current global economic situation, she insisted.
“Voters elected me because they wanted nursery schools, police and nurses, and not to buy loss-making car factories,” Olofsson told Swedish public radio earlier…
I loved this bit:
…The head of the main opposition Social Democrats, Mona Sahlin, has called for the government to rescue the unit, but Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told the TT news agency he felt “she is falling for the trap set by the US auto industry chiefs.”
Olofsson agreed. “If you feel no responsibility for taxpayer money I guess you would be prepared to do something like that,” she said of the opposition proposal.
Maybe it’s an indication of just how far to the left Canada and the United States are moving. I don’t know. That’s why we have comments under blog entries.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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