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While true, this is likely driven primarily by demographic factors. The US averages are dragged down by demographic groups which are common in the US, but rare

While true, this is likely driven primarily by demographic factors. The US averages are dragged down by demographic groups which are common in the US, but rare in Sweden. When you correct for demographics by comparing Swedish Americans to Swedes, it turns out that all income percentiles besides the bottom 10% are better off in the US. Even the bottom 10% are not very different. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nA4POTBiYKYJ:economicreview2011.blogspot.com/2010/03/super-economy-in-one-picture.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nA4POT... Note that countries populated by those other demographic groups also perform fairly badly. For example, Italy also tries to be "nice" or "responsible" (as you describe it), but Sicily is a very scenic (and tasty!) basket case. (I think it's not un-PC for me to talk about Sicily, since my ancestry is more Sicilian than anything else?)

jamesblonde 10y ago
I don't want to go here, because it's the thin edge of a tbh racist wedge. In Sweden there is practically zero unemployment for 'ethnic swedes'. So the debate here is now on integrating new arrivals in the workplace. The notion that somebody would say 'hey, but we have full employment for ethnic swedes, screw the others' is inconceivable. For the reason that we live in the same society. We share the same public transport and public spaces. If they are worse off, i will eventually be worse off (through them destroying our shared space). Having buy-in from everyone in society is crucial. That is why benefits are not means tested here. Yes, socialists want benefits for everyone, not just the poor. Because, when the rich stop receiving child benefit or university grants, they actively undermine the system. Naturally, our right wing parties want to means-test benefits. It's the opposite of anglo-saxon economies (disclosure- i'm from one, hence i notice these differences more than your average swede).
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  I don't want to go here, because it's the thin edge of a tbh racist wedge. It's always entertaining to watch people label a claim as "racist", but refuse to call them "false" or argue against them. I made no normative claims (e.g. "screw the others"), only a positive one.
hnbroseph 10y ago
seems to me that, for a very long while, transoceanic immigrants have tended to bring more in terms of education and other factors; influenced by the immigration process, among other things. as "Swedish Americans" aren't exactly a properly random sample of people plucked out of Sweden and relocated, it's not clear that it's very useful to compare to "all Swedes in Sweden".
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  If Swedish Americans are a bad comparison to Swedes in Sweden, then surely comparing non-Swedish Americans to Swedes in Sweden is even worse.
  - hnbroseph 10y ago
    swedish-americans vs swedes and americans vs swedes are simply two different comparisons, and it's not clear that "even worse" applies.
    - yummyfajitas 10y ago
      The goal - as per jamesblonde's comment - is to measure the effect of two different systems of government. The effect on the underlying people is the sample. So in this sense, the more different the people, the worse they are for this measurement.

jamesblonde 10y ago

I don't want to go here, because it's the thin edge of a tbh racist wedge. In Sweden there is practically zero unemployment for 'ethnic swedes'. So the debate here is now on integrating new arrivals in the workplace. The notion that somebody would say 'hey, but we have full employment for ethnic swedes, screw the others' is inconceivable. For the reason that we live in the same society. We share the same public transport and public spaces. If they are worse off, i will eventually be worse off (through them destroying our shared space). Having buy-in from everyone in society is crucial. That is why benefits are not means tested here. Yes, socialists want benefits for everyone, not just the poor. Because, when the rich stop receiving child benefit or university grants, they actively undermine the system. Naturally, our right wing parties want to means-test benefits. It's the opposite of anglo-saxon economies (disclosure- i'm from one, hence i notice these differences more than your average swede).

yummyfajitas 10y ago
I don't want to go here, because it's the thin edge of a tbh racist wedge. It's always entertaining to watch people label a claim as "racist", but refuse to call them "false" or argue against them. I made no normative claims (e.g. "screw the others"), only a positive one.

hnbroseph 10y ago

seems to me that, for a very long while, transoceanic immigrants have tended to bring more in terms of education and other factors; influenced by the immigration process, among other things. as "Swedish Americans" aren't exactly a properly random sample of people plucked out of Sweden and relocated, it's not clear that it's very useful to compare to "all Swedes in Sweden".

yummyfajitas 10y ago
If Swedish Americans are a bad comparison to Swedes in Sweden, then surely comparing non-Swedish Americans to Swedes in Sweden is even worse.
- hnbroseph 10y ago
  swedish-americans vs swedes and americans vs swedes are simply two different comparisons, and it's not clear that "even worse" applies.
  - yummyfajitas 10y ago
    The goal - as per jamesblonde's comment - is to measure the effect of two different systems of government. The effect on the underlying people is the sample. So in this sense, the more different the people, the worse they are for this measurement.