Currently, the Social Democrats are losing a P.R. war in Sweden; the media are asking them if they are the party of raises taxes; and they hum and haw, because they don't want to say yes, but they can't honestly say no.
They sound turn that question around and say that they are the party for seeing that government does it's job; namely, that society works for every-one, and no just the seventy percent (and falling) of people that can make a ruthless market economy work for them.
But they also need to acknowledge that the system as it was has faults; that simply giving people who fall out of the working mainstream money doesn't work either for individuals or society.
A lot of people in Sweden are on early retirement because they couldn't cope with working life, sometimes from as early as their twenties. A lot of immigrants find that it is nearly impossible to find work unless one can create it for ones self, an ability that we don't all possess. And a lot of Swedes aren't good enough at school to get a qualification and find themselves competing for the unqualified tasks, of which their aren't enough to go around.
But I can say from both personal experience and statistical data that not having something to work for in life is soul destroying; people who are retired early don't live as long as every-one else.
I'm not saying that society should find make-work, or punish people who can't find regular work; but that a role for all of these people who are left behind must be found. Because it's unacceptable that people should be left behind, and it's a problem that's only going to get worse.
And it's a problem that the current government doesn't acknowledge. Paupering the workforce to make them more competitive might create more jobs; but you've also paupered the work force. That's not a solution.
And I doubt that it will work. There will always be some-one who is more competitive.
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