I didn't say nobody, and I didn't say everywhere outside America. Don't exaggerate what I said.
I used an example that Australia Vs. America is a vast difference.
In my experience (and that of my brother), Americans not having maternity leave, sick leave, decent holidays etc. and having student debt and health care tied to their work means they are treated much more like slaves than in other high-performing OECD countries.
I'm curious about Sweden now.
- When one does lose their job in Sweden, what happens when you break your leg next week? or get cancer?
- How much student debt to those in Sweden incur for a 4 years bachelor degree?
- How many weeks of leave does Sweden mandate by law from full-time work?
- How about maternity leave and sick leave?
Alright then.
>When one does lose their job in Sweden, what happens when you break your leg next week? or get cancer?
Care for children is always for free in all clinics except private ones. Care for the rest of us cost 30 EUR, no matter if you have a job or not. There is an upper roof of how much your yearly medical bill is. This roof stays the same if you have a job or not. I have it that roof a couple of times but never for acctual medicine bills, so I don't know exactly how it works for medicine, but doctor bills, the upper roof is 10 doctor visits for 30 EUR then a year of no doctor bills.
Many have extra insurance to conver for events where you loose your ability to work.
>How much student debt to those in Sweden incur for a 4 years bachelor degree?
One part of the debt you take on you never pay back. That part is like a carte blanche check that students get to spend on whatever education they like, at University level. Second part is a loan. Some work part-time while at University and others hit the roof which would be something like 17 semesters and 17*2000=34K EUR. Then you start paying that back as soon as you take on your first job but never over ~1% of your income.
>How many weeks of leave does Sweden mandate by law from full-time work?
5 weeks. Many have 6 weeks. You can get those in money instead of as vacation. 4 weeks is around a months pay.
>How about maternity leave and sick leave?
Everyone have sickleave. First day: no money for you, poor sick fellow. Next day its around 70% of your pay. If you are chronically ill a special incurance takes care of you, puts you in early retirement.
All mothers: around 300 days of leave per child. You get goverment money during those days. All fathers: minimum is 3 months I think? They can also use some of the mother's days.
As a thought exercise, answer all of my questions above for the USA, comparing the answers to those you gave for Sweden.
Now you know why I said workers in the USA are akin to slaves compared to high-performing OECD countries.
I thought the American system would at least to some degree make job-hopping a non-issue, giving you a much more flexible work force, not anxious, since the fact that you can get fired and have to leave the same day goes both ways. But perhaps that worry comes from not having any type of security nets where we have at least a few. So sure, I see where you come from when you say an American employee is a slave to the corporation that gives him health insurance. He can hop only to other employers with health insurance. He will have less options than me.
We are healther in Sweden, perhaps, but slaves to the money system like everyone else.
- Health care insurance is not (as far as I know) provided by your employer.
- If you take the maximum amount of student loan from CSN (http://www.csn.se/en/2.1034), you'll end up whith ~70 000kr debt per year
- Swedish law mandates 25 day of paid leave per year for a full time employee. https://lagen.nu/1977:480 (in Swedish)
- We have parental leave with some compensation for 480 days, you can find more information here: (http://preview.tinyurl.com/ktgsyyg)
My point was not to say we have not come a long way in Sweden. It was to question if that really makes us feel less like slaves to the system. My view is we have built this system to make sure we have a happy work force. Allthough that might not sound sinister, it does make me feel part of a system that it is hard to opt-out from.
I definetly feel like a slave to the monetary system. But this is already way off-topic.
The point of this is that I wonder why Swedes get into so much debt. Housing is (apart from Stockholm and Göteborg and some popular areas in other cities) affordable by my Dutch standards. Wages are on par with the Netherlands, taxes are comparable (both are high-tax countries for wage earners), cost of living depends very much on your life style but is comparable to or slightly higher than the Netherlands. Still, Swedes seem to take on enormous loans for some unfathomable reason. Unfathomable, because it certainly is possible to live free here, without that yoke of debt. It might be a status thing, people want to live in those expensive areas even though you can get more space for half the price only a few kilometres away.
That being said, someone in the US also easily earns double salary compared to Europe and has lower taxes.
As an aside, I once saw a homeless man in a Scandinavian country. Someone actually stopped their car to check on them. As a tourist from NA, my mind was blown. Was impressed by that but not having to pay 10 bucks for a cup of tea :p
As to the nature of debt, it is almost entirely in housing. It is currently a big debate about whatever there should be laws on private cash investment and mortgage repayment rates.
Homelessness example from Sweden's public radio (2014): http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&art...
OECD private debt: https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm
EDIT: Almost all the homeless people you see in Stockholm are Romani people. They are one of the five officially recognized national minorities in Sweden, along with Jews, Sami, Sweden Finns and Tornedalers (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...)
EDIT
> EDIT: Almost all the homeless people you see in Stockholm are Romani people. They are one of the five officially recognized national minorities in Sweden, along with Jews, Sami, Sweden Finns and Tornedalers ...
Please refer to my post below replying to this same assertion from another poster.
My point is that the OP was attempting to construct an argument about the supposed failings of a social structure based upon an anecdote about people that were never part of the social structure in the first place.
(NB I never said that they aren't welcome to join the society just that they haven't done so.)
Households in Sweden take on heavy debt. If we loose our jobs here some of us fall back for a while on a (voluntary) system which from an angle looks like a basic income but that cover only a fraction of that household's mortage, enslaving us to a system in the same way Americans may seem enslaved in their.
I always though Americans were used to and didn't have a lost sence of security when job-hopping, the way their employment system is designed.
Edit: clarified the opt-in nature of such an insurance