A 16 MP "25 mm" CMOS sensor results in lower quality photographs than a 16 MP "35 mm" CMOS sensor. This is due to the fact that the bigger sensor have bigger sensor-elements thus lowering the impact of thermal-based/other noise.
(of course a 40 mm CMOS sensor would be EVEN better) - however when you have 35 mm there is the added benefit that it is more user friendly for the photographs, and I would gess that if canon started using 40 mm sensors, or bigger, everyone would have to buy new lenses - as of today all canon digital SLRs can use the same lenses as the older SLRs.
This might seem trollish. However I have no intention of using any online music store until they meet my wishes/demands of toally free music, I see no reason to pay for information.
Until then, I will simply download it from trackers, and such (wich is not illegal where I live - yet).
The "USA is the worlds most stable/best democracy" is a propaganda sentence. It is nonbalanced subjective thinking presented as fact. In newsmedia from USA I have often seen that - and a general thinking of "we have the best democracy ever".
And IMO that sentence is very wrong. A simple example would be that fellons are not allowed to vote - SOME groups of people are not ALLOWED to vote - I can't understand why that does not make more people upset in the USA. It is horrible and non-democratic. Another example on the USA democratic system is the fact that there are only 2 parties - a direct result, IMO, of the stupid "one winner takes it all"-system (I am thinking of the presidency, not the senate). Also I am very negative towards the highly individual-focused system; You vote for one president, and focus a lot on his personal attributes - which is TOTALLY wrong - one should only look at the party which the candidate represents.
If I would choose the country that has the best democracy, I would choose Switzerland, followed by a row of other European countries such as the scandinavian ones, germany, etc.
You say "The laws are wrong." in a way that sounds like it is an objective fact.
It is not an objective fact that the laws *ARE* wrong. Laws is a matter of subjective thought and beliefs on how to organize a society - as is the justice and government system in the USA. There is never any clear objective "right" and "wrong" in cases such as this.
I do not like the laws in china, and I do not like the laws in the USA, but I can not say that they *ARE* WRONG. It is plainly too strong to say. The correct thing to say is "I think the laws are wrong, and google..." or "In my opinion". If that is not said, it sounds like you are stating facts.
China may be stupid and have draconian laws. But in my opinion, and objectively, it is as much wrong to ignore laws in china if you do business in china as it is to ignore USA-laws when doing business in USA.
If I don't agree to some laws in the USA, because they don't match my morale, it does not give me any right to ignore them. Likewise it is for google in China.
It is simple to understand the issue by this reversed question: Should china ignore some laws in USA, if they do not agree with their morale/ideas?
I have to ask you why flying cars would be good? It requires a lot of energy to lift, say 3000 KG, 500 m in the air. If this would be done millions of times each day, it seemes as a huge energy waste.
I do not believe in flying cars. Heavily congested areas could be helped by computerized driving, where computers synchronious drive the cars in high speeds and verry close to each other.
I believe there was some example on this but on rail. So ie, there would be a "monorail"-network thruought the city, you drive your car yourself (if you want), until you reach any of the on/off ramps to the monorail net. On which your car gets controlled by a decentrialized computer network, or something like that, and each vechile is driven in huge speeds extremely close to each other (say a few hundred kph).
So now it might be on all the torrent trackers, nice.
A thought: if I have bought the original VHS movies, is it morally wrong if I download this higher quality version of the same movie that I have already bought?
Wikipedia is acctually better compared with communism; everyone writes (if they want) articles on subejects they are intrested in without profit motives. At the same time everyone get their need for information satisfied.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"
Wouldnt it be possible to use the OSS model to create a manually indexed internet - (in which a thousand geeks surf the web and contribute to the indexing - could be done with a toolbar for firefox, etc) - For ultimate relevance and "fiddle-proof" search engine?
You seem to not understand capitalism:) (sorry for that flamewar style comment)
But anyways, the trend of today in capitalism is to focus on what you are good at. A company should do what it does best, everything else is outsourced or just scrapped.
If google is world leader in search technology, they should probably focus on that, not shell out a few hundred millions on trying to make a webbrowser that probably wont 0wn MSIE anywas. (Especially if they choose to charge for it, MSIE is still "free", and people like free)
No, google should focus on what it is good @ - search technologies; and if it wants to "expand" its productline; it should let the browser be done by other people, for example, by using an existing OSS browser like firefox.
This can already be done with legacy/consumer hardware in Linux thanks to the Linux Console project: linuxconsole
I am really looking forward to when the linuxconsole code is in the Linux kernel - since this will make Linux even better.
When you have the patched kernel you can just put in as many AGP/PCI graphics cards, USB mices and keyboards as you need consoles. I have yet to find a motherboard with multiple AGP ports - and that is the type of hardware jetway should have done in their project - not specialized windows fluff.
Anyways, I am running a setup with 2 userconsoles at home, and it works great! The setup I have was extremely cheap, like sub 300-400 USD for a 2 user setup (the most expensive stuff being the monitors). It is possible to play fullmotion video or 3d games on both consoles at the same time if you have nvidia graphics cards. (Finally good ping in quake 2!;)
Btw a cool "by-product" of the linuxconsole project is that you apparently can use both PS/2 ports for keyboards (or mices):)
Also I believe that HP already have a multiconsole (4 users) product based on Linux with Linuxconsole targeted at the african market.
Bredbandsbolaget is relying almost entierly on city-broadband-networks for the local broadband delievery - payed in part by taxes in each city. Also bredbandsbolaget is a big client of "Svenska Kraftnät" - A state owned powerline operator which has big fiber cables next to the power cables. Bredbandsbolaget is also using "Banverket"'s fiber connections - a state owned railroad operator.
Sure, Bredbandsbolaget is not owned by the state, however it is made possible thanks to the government.
Well IBMs actions (this far) got themselves a IBM Thinkpad sale to me.:) However, if they turn their backs on OSS, I will not buy anything else from IBM in the future.
Well, I think most comments here is not what Kasreyn asked for. He/she asked
for information and comparisons with other countries, and as little national
biasis as possible.. None of any earlier posts that i have read has managed
to do that. I will try that as best i can to "answer" Kasreys "question".
Ok. I live in Sweden (northern europe, if you did not know that). Before I
say anything about sweden i wish to clarify some things;
1) "Freedom" is a too vague word to use. Can one define "freedom"? No, i
think not, it is a word that is highly subjective, and some people think
some things are "freedom" and others think that other things are "freedom".
Therefore you can never say that "this country is "free"", or "here we have
a lot of "freedom"", bcs everybody does not have the same definitions of
"freedom".
2) Depending on fundamental views on the "human value", and fundamental
beliefs, different people think that different countries is "the best". Eg.
If you believe that a human that does not have a job "is lazy"; "it is his
"fault" that he has no job", or that the poor people has only them selves
to blame for their situation; then USA maybe is your choise of "the best
country".
3) The example in "2)" was verry "rough", when one "choose" wich country is
"the best", many more factors play a part. You cannot look at 2-3 things and
then decide "this country is the best". You have to look at many different
aspects.
4) When some people here compare USA and "the rest of the world", they say;
"China has much tougher regulations, Sweden has much higher Taxes,
russia has bad environment, bosnia has a bad governmnet, in USA your vote
are counted; USA must therefore be the best on earth".. That is "bad"
reasoning, one cannot compare "the worst" thing of every country with usa,
and then say that usa is "best". You have to compare all the benefits and
drawbacks of all countries with all countries. Further on, a statement like
" is the best country", is a subjective view (se "1)").
5) Sweden has not 60% tax, we have different taxes depending on how much money
you earn. Starting at 32% when you earn up to 200000 SEK (20000 USD) year
to 52% when you earn above 400000 SEK (around those figures, i am not 100%
sure on the exact figures) (40000 USD).
6) I do not think america is "the most equal country" in the world, between
males/females (as one earlier said). Many european countries are more equal.
7) Everybody can "fail" in creating his/hers life, EVEN YOU!.
8) Before I start talking about what i think is good and bad with sweden,
and why i think so, i will tell a little about my political alignment and
a little about my "valuation of the human beeing":
* I am a "communist"; I think that all humans on earth are "worth" "equally";
with that i mean that everybody should have the same changce of making
his/hers life a good life. I am not saying that everybody should get
"exactly the same amount of money", communism is NOT about that (and it is NOT
about taking all your assets either)...I am only saying that everybody should
get as much "money"/help they need to fullfill their lives. Everybody is
different, but also equal in the same time. Everybody have different needs;
some people (like I) is happy with enoufh food, warm house, fast computer
and a fast internet connection..;) But others need more, a sportsman need
more food, and access to training equipment, maybe an artist needs "expencive"
music equipment, and a scientists need plenty of "funding, etc etc.. ; wile
person A) can work hard, has worked har his/hers entire life, has built up
an own company, and is fairly rich, person B) can not work that hard. Today
people that are "different", people that does not meet the "demands" from
the society today are simply ignored, and "left behind".
* Whats important in life is not how hard you work, how much you "produce",
etc, whats important is that YOU have a nice life; that YOU are happy. We
only live once; life is to valuable to be wasted on living after what is
requierd (go to school - work hard - retire - die).
Anyway, I would prefer a country with a communist system. Much like the
open source community acctually; Everybody does what he/she likes/does best,
and share everything he/she produces with his/her fellow human beeings. It
works today in small scale, and it could work in a large scale if only
everybody really wanted this system. I believe that someday in the future
we will either have a "utopia" system like this, or we have exterminated
ourselves.
Since there are NO communist countries in the world, today, and
there HAS NEVER BEEN. (Thats true, no matter what any dictator or western
government says). (the dictators wanted to be "popular" amongst people by
saying they was communists, and the western governments wanted the communists
to "look bad"). Just read the communist manifesto (Karl Marx), and compare
with eg. soviet and china, you will notice the big differences.
So, in the world today, i do not think any country is "good",
but i do prefer some over others. I have not lived in any other country
than sweden and france (only one year), also i have only been to Finnland,
Norway, Denmark, England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary,
Slovakia and Austira, so I know little about living in other countries.
(although that depends on what you compare with "everything is relative").;)
Now i will start with the bad things of Sweden (bad things relative
to other countries, not relative to "semi"-utopia)(like utopia, but possible)).
* We have monarchy. Ok, not real monarchy, since the king has even less
power than the average citizen, but the "idea" of monarchy is bad..
* The government has decided to privatize state-owned companies, such as
our telephone company "Telia", etc etc. Also they have got this new "crazy"
idea to privatize hospitals, etc.* The wallenbergïs have too much power.
..hmm.. I think that is the bad things i can figure out. Many people here
think it is bad when the taxes are high, i dont.
But if YOU have a other "valuation of human life", then you
probably consider high taxes a bad thing....I think it is good that we
(all citizens of sweden) are cooperating and together we paying things that
everybody has benefits of/uses. Eg. Free hospitals, free schools, roads,
powerplants, great social security net. etc. If you think that high taxes
are bad, ask your self this; "do you really need all those extra money,
dont you allready have everything you need as it is now?"; if not; then
think about the poor people that does not have anything. It could have been
you out there on the street!!.The good things:
* We are well educated, thanks to our fairly good school, and the equal
standard between them. The differences in quality between different schools
in different cities is verry small.. Almost everybody goes in "public schools".
There are a few "private" school for extremly rich people or christian, etc etc.
There is strict regulations about what different cources should contain, etc.
Everybody has the same right to all educations.
* We have a high technological standard, almost entire europe has everything
that america has (sometimes more(eg. the computer and/or internet density is
higher in sweden than in USA).
* We have high taxes. (i have already explained this).
* We have little war. (after all, america is involved in more wars (the last
30-40 years) than most european countries). Sweden has not been in a war
since sometime in the 18th century. (NO, we was not in the WWII).
* We have strict government regulations on chemicals and medicines.
"läkemedelsverket" conducts extensive testing on all chemicals and medicines
to make sure that everything is harmless to humans and the nature.
* If you loose your job, you are still entitled to "basic needs", such as;
food, house, car, TV, video, etc etc.* We do not have software patents.
* It is allowed to download MP3ïs and copy software (for personal use,
commercial copying is strictly forbidden).
* Our former state owned phone company, Telia (now the state only owns 75%),
is offering high-speed DSL internet connections to almost all citizens of
sweden for 25 USD / month.
* The state owned residential buildings, are verry cheap to live in,
even in stockholm centrum.
* 95% (or something close to that figure) is a member of a union of some kind.
The biggest union, LO has over 3 million members. The trade unions make
sure that everybody gets their fair salary, and is not "used" by the employer.
* It is ease to start a business company and managing it. Altough the
"profit tax" is 52% and the social fees is 32%.
* There is NO "slums", etc etc, like the ones that you can see in america.
* There is verry few poor people.
* There is verry few extremly rich people. The population is verry "equal"
in terms of money and assets. (But it does exist rich people, the Wallenbergs
own verry much of the sweden industries, and then there also is Ingvar Kamprad
(IKEA),one of the riches mans in the world).* And more..
It is verry hard to "compare" sweden with other countries. Or for that matter
compare any country with anyother country.. In northern europe, the governments
have for a long time had much power. Since it is the citizens that elects
government, the country is more or less "ruled by the people".. In, for
example usa, the government has less power, and the private industry more
power, wich means that USA is less "designed" after what people wants, and
more designed for "business leaders".
I believe Capitalism is the biggest threat against democracy. Yes, the
government has power over the companies by their regulations, etc. BUT
the companies are not ruled by the people, they are ruled by the people
that has "money".; In capitalism you buy your power. The most fair, and
democratic system, would be "democratic planned economy"; the people
choose the business leaders.
Anyway. I have probably drifted from the subject here and there, but i hope
that you still found some useful information in my text. I hope that everybody
that reads this starts thinking little more of whats really important in life,
and if the world we have today is a such a good place to live. Shouldnt we
instead create a world wich is truly good. Just think about some of the bad
things of the world today; There are millions of people starving, there are
billions of people that does not even have a TV, there are billions of people
that are severely undereducated, there are heavily mass unemplyment, and there
are verry high demands of many products. ; if there is both production capacity
and demand for products, then there MUST! be something wrong with the system
we have today.
Thanks for reading my post.:) And a happy new millenium..;)
Slashdot Mirror
IMO USA is sick and it is getting worse.
A 16 MP "25 mm" CMOS sensor results in lower quality photographs than a 16 MP "35 mm" CMOS sensor. This is due to the fact that the bigger sensor have bigger sensor-elements thus lowering the impact of thermal-based/other noise.
(of course a 40 mm CMOS sensor would be EVEN better) - however when you have 35 mm there is the added benefit that it is more user friendly for the photographs, and I would gess that if canon started using 40 mm sensors, or bigger, everyone would have to buy new lenses - as of today all canon digital SLRs can use the same lenses as the older SLRs.
This might seem trollish. However I have no intention of using any online music store until they meet my wishes/demands of toally free music, I see no reason to pay for information.
Until then, I will simply download it from trackers, and such (wich is not illegal where I live - yet).
I have not that problem with my display. This is maybe redundant, but I want to show that there are many that does NOT have these problems.
The "USA is the worlds most stable/best democracy" is a propaganda sentence. It is nonbalanced subjective thinking presented as fact. In newsmedia from USA I have often seen that - and a general thinking of "we have the best democracy ever".
And IMO that sentence is very wrong. A simple example would be that fellons are not allowed to vote - SOME groups of people are not ALLOWED to vote - I can't understand why that does not make more people upset in the USA. It is horrible and non-democratic. Another example on the USA democratic system is the fact that there are only 2 parties - a direct result, IMO, of the stupid "one winner takes it all"-system (I am thinking of the presidency, not the senate). Also I am very negative towards the highly individual-focused system; You vote for one president, and focus a lot on his personal attributes - which is TOTALLY wrong - one should only look at the party which the candidate represents.
If I would choose the country that has the best democracy, I would choose Switzerland, followed by a row of other European countries such as the scandinavian ones, germany, etc.
You say "The laws are wrong." in a way that sounds like it is an objective fact.
It is not an objective fact that the laws *ARE* wrong. Laws is a matter of subjective thought and beliefs on how to organize a society - as is the justice and government system in the USA. There is never any clear objective "right" and "wrong" in cases such as this.
I do not like the laws in china, and I do not like the laws in the USA, but I can not say that they *ARE* WRONG. It is plainly too strong to say. The correct thing to say is "I think the laws are wrong, and google..." or "In my opinion". If that is not said, it sounds like you are stating facts.
China may be stupid and have draconian laws. But in my opinion, and objectively, it is as much wrong to ignore laws in china if you do business in china as it is to ignore USA-laws when doing business in USA.
If I don't agree to some laws in the USA, because they don't match my morale, it does not give me any right to ignore them. Likewise it is for google in China.
It is simple to understand the issue by this reversed question: Should china ignore some laws in USA, if they do not agree with their morale/ideas?
Google does the right thing.
I have to ask you why flying cars would be good? It requires a lot of energy to lift, say 3000 KG, 500 m in the air. If this would be done millions of times each day, it seemes as a huge energy waste.
I do not believe in flying cars. Heavily congested areas could be helped by computerized driving, where computers synchronious drive the cars in high speeds and verry close to each other.
I believe there was some example on this but on rail. So ie, there would be a "monorail"-network thruought the city, you drive your car yourself (if you want), until you reach any of the on/off ramps to the monorail net. On which your car gets controlled by a decentrialized computer network, or something like that, and each vechile is driven in huge speeds extremely close to each other (say a few hundred kph).
So now it might be on all the torrent trackers, nice.
A thought: if I have bought the original VHS movies, is it morally wrong if I download this higher quality version of the same movie that I have already bought?
Wikipedia is acctually better compared with communism; everyone writes (if they want) articles on subejects they are intrested in without profit motives. At the same time everyone get their need for information satisfied.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"
Wouldnt it be possible to use the OSS model to create a manually indexed internet - (in which a thousand geeks surf the web and contribute to the indexing - could be done with a toolbar for firefox, etc) - For ultimate relevance and "fiddle-proof" search engine?
Thoughts?
You seem to not understand capitalism :) (sorry for that flamewar style comment)
But anyways, the trend of today in capitalism is to focus on what you are good at. A company should do what it does best, everything else is outsourced or just scrapped.
If google is world leader in search technology, they should probably focus on that, not shell out a few hundred millions on trying to make a webbrowser that probably wont 0wn MSIE anywas. (Especially if they choose to charge for it, MSIE is still "free", and people like free)
No, google should focus on what it is good @ - search technologies; and if it wants to "expand" its productline; it should let the browser be done by other people, for example, by using an existing OSS browser like firefox.
This can already be done with legacy/consumer hardware in Linux thanks to the Linux Console project: linuxconsole
;)
:)
I am really looking forward to when the linuxconsole code is in the Linux kernel - since this will make Linux even better.
When you have the patched kernel you can just put in as many AGP/PCI graphics cards, USB mices and keyboards as you need consoles. I have yet to find a motherboard with multiple AGP ports - and that is the type of hardware jetway should have done in their project - not specialized windows fluff.
Anyways, I am running a setup with 2 userconsoles at home, and it works great! The setup I have was extremely cheap, like sub 300-400 USD for a 2 user setup (the most expensive stuff being the monitors). It is possible to play fullmotion video or 3d games on both consoles at the same time if you have nvidia graphics cards. (Finally good ping in quake 2!
Btw a cool "by-product" of the linuxconsole project is that you apparently can use both PS/2 ports for keyboards (or mices)
Also I believe that HP already have a multiconsole (4 users) product based on Linux with Linuxconsole targeted at the african market.
USA a honest nation, allow me to laugh..
:)
BAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAA...
For me, USA is not more honest, or better, than china or north korea - all those countries are only looking for their own ass - which sucks.
Bredbandsbolaget is relying almost entierly on city-broadband-networks for the local broadband delievery - payed in part by taxes in each city. Also bredbandsbolaget is a big client of "Svenska Kraftnät" - A state owned powerline operator which has big fiber cables next to the power cables. Bredbandsbolaget is also using "Banverket"'s fiber connections - a state owned railroad operator.
Sure, Bredbandsbolaget is not owned by the state, however it is made possible thanks to the government.
The SCO mess will soon be over, it's better if we chip in $100 USD each, and buy something useful, like we did with blender.
Well IBMs actions (this far) got themselves a IBM Thinkpad sale to me. :) However, if they turn their backs on OSS, I will not buy anything else from IBM in the future.
I feel the same...
Well, I think most comments here is not what Kasreyn asked for. He/she asked
..I am only saying that everybody should
;) But others need more, a sportsman need
;)
..I think it is good that we
:) And a happy new millenium.. ;)
for information and comparisons with other countries, and as little national
biasis as possible.. None of any earlier posts that i have read has managed
to do that. I will try that as best i can to "answer" Kasreys "question".
Ok. I live in Sweden (northern europe, if you did not know that). Before I
say anything about sweden i wish to clarify some things;
1) "Freedom" is a too vague word to use. Can one define "freedom"? No, i
think not, it is a word that is highly subjective, and some people think
some things are "freedom" and others think that other things are "freedom".
Therefore you can never say that "this country is "free"", or "here we have
a lot of "freedom"", bcs everybody does not have the same definitions of
"freedom".
2) Depending on fundamental views on the "human value", and fundamental
beliefs, different people think that different countries is "the best". Eg.
If you believe that a human that does not have a job "is lazy"; "it is his
"fault" that he has no job", or that the poor people has only them selves
to blame for their situation; then USA maybe is your choise of "the best
country".
3) The example in "2)" was verry "rough", when one "choose" wich country is
"the best", many more factors play a part. You cannot look at 2-3 things and
then decide "this country is the best". You have to look at many different
aspects.
4) When some people here compare USA and "the rest of the world", they say;
"China has much tougher regulations, Sweden has much higher Taxes,
russia has bad environment, bosnia has a bad governmnet, in USA your vote
are counted; USA must therefore be the best on earth".. That is "bad"
reasoning, one cannot compare "the worst" thing of every country with usa,
and then say that usa is "best". You have to compare all the benefits and
drawbacks of all countries with all countries. Further on, a statement like
" is the best country", is a subjective view (se "1)").
5) Sweden has not 60% tax, we have different taxes depending on how much money
you earn. Starting at 32% when you earn up to 200000 SEK (20000 USD) year
to 52% when you earn above 400000 SEK (around those figures, i am not 100%
sure on the exact figures) (40000 USD).
6) I do not think america is "the most equal country" in the world, between
males/females (as one earlier said). Many european countries are more equal.
7) Everybody can "fail" in creating his/hers life, EVEN YOU!.
8) Before I start talking about what i think is good and bad with sweden,
and why i think so, i will tell a little about my political alignment and
a little about my "valuation of the human beeing":
* I am a "communist"; I think that all humans on earth are "worth" "equally";
with that i mean that everybody should have the same changce of making
his/hers life a good life. I am not saying that everybody should get
"exactly the same amount of money", communism is NOT about that (and it is NOT
about taking all your assets either).
get as much "money"/help they need to fullfill their lives. Everybody is
different, but also equal in the same time. Everybody have different needs;
some people (like I) is happy with enoufh food, warm house, fast computer
and a fast internet connection..
more food, and access to training equipment, maybe an artist needs "expencive"
music equipment, and a scientists need plenty of "funding, etc etc.. ; wile
person A) can work hard, has worked har his/hers entire life, has built up
an own company, and is fairly rich, person B) can not work that hard. Today
people that are "different", people that does not meet the "demands" from
the society today are simply ignored, and "left behind".
* Whats important in life is not how hard you work, how much you "produce",
etc, whats important is that YOU have a nice life; that YOU are happy. We
only live once; life is to valuable to be wasted on living after what is
requierd (go to school - work hard - retire - die).
Anyway, I would prefer a country with a communist system. Much like the
open source community acctually; Everybody does what he/she likes/does best,
and share everything he/she produces with his/her fellow human beeings. It
works today in small scale, and it could work in a large scale if only
everybody really wanted this system. I believe that someday in the future
we will either have a "utopia" system like this, or we have exterminated
ourselves.
Since there are NO communist countries in the world, today, and
there HAS NEVER BEEN. (Thats true, no matter what any dictator or western
government says). (the dictators wanted to be "popular" amongst people by
saying they was communists, and the western governments wanted the communists
to "look bad"). Just read the communist manifesto (Karl Marx), and compare
with eg. soviet and china, you will notice the big differences.
So, in the world today, i do not think any country is "good",
but i do prefer some over others. I have not lived in any other country
than sweden and france (only one year), also i have only been to Finnland,
Norway, Denmark, England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary,
Slovakia and Austira, so I know little about living in other countries.
(although that depends on what you compare with "everything is relative").
Now i will start with the bad things of Sweden (bad things relative
to other countries, not relative to "semi"-utopia)(like utopia, but possible)).
* We have monarchy. Ok, not real monarchy, since the king has even less
power than the average citizen, but the "idea" of monarchy is bad..
* The government has decided to privatize state-owned companies, such as
our telephone company "Telia", etc etc. Also they have got this new "crazy"
idea to privatize hospitals, etc.* The wallenbergïs have too much power.
..hmm.. I think that is the bad things i can figure out. Many people here
think it is bad when the taxes are high, i dont.
But if YOU have a other "valuation of human life", then you
probably consider high taxes a bad thing..
(all citizens of sweden) are cooperating and together we paying things that
everybody has benefits of/uses. Eg. Free hospitals, free schools, roads,
powerplants, great social security net. etc. If you think that high taxes
are bad, ask your self this; "do you really need all those extra money,
dont you allready have everything you need as it is now?"; if not; then
think about the poor people that does not have anything. It could have been
you out there on the street!!.The good things:
* We are well educated, thanks to our fairly good school, and the equal
standard between them. The differences in quality between different schools
in different cities is verry small.. Almost everybody goes in "public schools".
There are a few "private" school for extremly rich people or christian, etc etc.
There is strict regulations about what different cources should contain, etc.
Everybody has the same right to all educations.
* We have a high technological standard, almost entire europe has everything
that america has (sometimes more(eg. the computer and/or internet density is
higher in sweden than in USA).
* We have high taxes. (i have already explained this).
* We have little war. (after all, america is involved in more wars (the last
30-40 years) than most european countries). Sweden has not been in a war
since sometime in the 18th century. (NO, we was not in the WWII).
* We have strict government regulations on chemicals and medicines.
"läkemedelsverket" conducts extensive testing on all chemicals and medicines
to make sure that everything is harmless to humans and the nature.
* If you loose your job, you are still entitled to "basic needs", such as;
food, house, car, TV, video, etc etc.* We do not have software patents.
* It is allowed to download MP3ïs and copy software (for personal use,
commercial copying is strictly forbidden).
* Our former state owned phone company, Telia (now the state only owns 75%),
is offering high-speed DSL internet connections to almost all citizens of
sweden for 25 USD / month.
* The state owned residential buildings, are verry cheap to live in,
even in stockholm centrum.
* 95% (or something close to that figure) is a member of a union of some kind.
The biggest union, LO has over 3 million members. The trade unions make
sure that everybody gets their fair salary, and is not "used" by the employer.
* It is ease to start a business company and managing it. Altough the
"profit tax" is 52% and the social fees is 32%.
* There is NO "slums", etc etc, like the ones that you can see in america.
* There is verry few poor people.
* There is verry few extremly rich people. The population is verry "equal"
in terms of money and assets. (But it does exist rich people, the Wallenbergs
own verry much of the sweden industries, and then there also is Ingvar Kamprad
(IKEA),one of the riches mans in the world).* And more..
It is verry hard to "compare" sweden with other countries. Or for that matter
compare any country with anyother country.. In northern europe, the governments
have for a long time had much power. Since it is the citizens that elects
government, the country is more or less "ruled by the people".. In, for
example usa, the government has less power, and the private industry more
power, wich means that USA is less "designed" after what people wants, and
more designed for "business leaders".
I believe Capitalism is the biggest threat against democracy. Yes, the
government has power over the companies by their regulations, etc. BUT
the companies are not ruled by the people, they are ruled by the people
that has "money".; In capitalism you buy your power. The most fair, and
democratic system, would be "democratic planned economy"; the people
choose the business leaders.
Anyway. I have probably drifted from the subject here and there, but i hope
that you still found some useful information in my text. I hope that everybody
that reads this starts thinking little more of whats really important in life,
and if the world we have today is a such a good place to live. Shouldnt we
instead create a world wich is truly good. Just think about some of the bad
things of the world today; There are millions of people starving, there are
billions of people that does not even have a TV, there are billions of people
that are severely undereducated, there are heavily mass unemplyment, and there
are verry high demands of many products. ; if there is both production capacity
and demand for products, then there MUST! be something wrong with the system
we have today.
Thanks for reading my post.