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> Agree with most of this. Although to be fair the social safety net is not as weak in the US as most people think, either. No way. It's almost impossible to b

> Agree with most of this. Although to be fair the social safety net is not as weak in the US as most people think, either. No way. It's almost impossible to become homeless in Sweden while you have the entire homeless villages everywhere. People with disability get paid a living income and are allowed to save money, which they aren't in the US. Then we have tons of other services like child care, health care and universally just way better everything regarding infrastructure and social service. I've lived half my life in each place and honestly the difference is Grand Canyon sized. Even Portugal, one of the poorest still has great free healthcare and all kinds of social safety net sand services.

999900000999 4y ago
America is the only country that doesn't offer any type of parental leave. You might get two or three days or something like that, and then everyone pats themselves on the back saying how progressive we are. It's absolutely horrific when you consider people may have medical issues which cause them to need to take a bit more time off. But guess what, you now have insane medical bills, and pressure to get back to work. It's not unheard of for a woman to just get fired if she takes off too much time for a pregnancy. Sure, that's illegal, but workers are treated so horribly in America. You're lucky to get your paycheck half the time.
- irrational 4y ago
  Depends on the job. At my job men get 3 months and women get 6 months paid parental leave when a baby is born.
  - piva00 4y ago
    What percentage of the population has access to this kind of job with benefits in the US? For Sweden it's close to 100%.
    - irrational 4y ago
      No idea. My company employees tens of thousands of people who all of this access. What I don't know is how many more also have similar benefits. I would guess most large companies give this sort of benefit.
      - 999900000999 4y ago
        >Today, only 21% of US workers have access to paid family leave through their employers, even though, according to the Pew Research Center in 2015, both parents work full-time in almost half all two-parent families. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210624-why-doesnt-the-us-have-mandated-paid-maternity-leave https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210624-why-doesnt-the...
naberhausj 4y ago
According to Wikipedia Sweden has a higher rate of homelessness per capita than the United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeles...
- kalleboo 4y ago
  These lists are almost always useless for comparisons since the definitions between countries vary so widely. edit: Digging into the sources, the US has 6.4 unsheltered homeless per 10k, but Sweden doesn't even track unsheltered homeless, the most acute category (at 4.5/10k) also contains people in immediate access shelter/hospice.
  - xyzzy123 4y ago
    I think it would be quite difficult to even survive long-term as an unsheltered person in Sweden, right?
    - piva00 4y ago
      Yes, come October-November all the way to March-April and it'd be extremely hard to live 6 months of the year in a tent on freezing temperatures.
  - naberhausj 4y ago
    This is a fair point. To Wikipedia's credit, I think it's adequately addressed in the article I linked. I think a more general statement could be made. It's nearly useless to make comparisons between countries. The United States cannot adopt Swedish policies and expect to achieve Swedish outcomes. I'd much prefer we discuss policies for our countries in our own contexts rather than introducing comparisons between them. The parent comment introduced a comparison, though. So, I think it's only fair to introduce some form of statistics. Thanks for providing a more founded empirical interpretation of the facts! It seems Sweden has some edge on the USA, but the original claim (that it's almost impossible to be homeless in Sweden) still seems as unfounded as I expected. As another commentator noted, I think climate is something to consider. I expect that you'll find higher concentrations of shelter-less people in more temperate (or at least warm) places. Cultures will evolve to prevent people from needlessly dying, but we aren't inclined to give more than the bare minimum.

999900000999 4y ago

America is the only country that doesn't offer any type of parental leave. You might get two or three days or something like that, and then everyone pats themselves on the back saying how progressive we are. It's absolutely horrific when you consider people may have medical issues which cause them to need to take a bit more time off. But guess what, you now have insane medical bills, and pressure to get back to work. It's not unheard of for a woman to just get fired if she takes off too much time for a pregnancy. Sure, that's illegal, but workers are treated so horribly in America. You're lucky to get your paycheck half the time.

irrational 4y ago
Depends on the job. At my job men get 3 months and women get 6 months paid parental leave when a baby is born.
- piva00 4y ago
  What percentage of the population has access to this kind of job with benefits in the US? For Sweden it's close to 100%.
  - irrational 4y ago
    No idea. My company employees tens of thousands of people who all of this access. What I don't know is how many more also have similar benefits. I would guess most large companies give this sort of benefit.
    - 999900000999 4y ago
      >Today, only 21% of US workers have access to paid family leave through their employers, even though, according to the Pew Research Center in 2015, both parents work full-time in almost half all two-parent families. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210624-why-doesnt-the-us-have-mandated-paid-maternity-leave https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210624-why-doesnt-the...

naberhausj 4y ago

According to Wikipedia Sweden has a higher rate of homelessness per capita than the United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeles...

kalleboo 4y ago
These lists are almost always useless for comparisons since the definitions between countries vary so widely. edit: Digging into the sources, the US has 6.4 unsheltered homeless per 10k, but Sweden doesn't even track unsheltered homeless, the most acute category (at 4.5/10k) also contains people in immediate access shelter/hospice.
- xyzzy123 4y ago
  I think it would be quite difficult to even survive long-term as an unsheltered person in Sweden, right?
  - piva00 4y ago
    Yes, come October-November all the way to March-April and it'd be extremely hard to live 6 months of the year in a tent on freezing temperatures.
- naberhausj 4y ago
  This is a fair point. To Wikipedia's credit, I think it's adequately addressed in the article I linked. I think a more general statement could be made. It's nearly useless to make comparisons between countries. The United States cannot adopt Swedish policies and expect to achieve Swedish outcomes. I'd much prefer we discuss policies for our countries in our own contexts rather than introducing comparisons between them. The parent comment introduced a comparison, though. So, I think it's only fair to introduce some form of statistics. Thanks for providing a more founded empirical interpretation of the facts! It seems Sweden has some edge on the USA, but the original claim (that it's almost impossible to be homeless in Sweden) still seems as unfounded as I expected. As another commentator noted, I think climate is something to consider. I expect that you'll find higher concentrations of shelter-less people in more temperate (or at least warm) places. Cultures will evolve to prevent people from needlessly dying, but we aren't inclined to give more than the bare minimum.