mortyb Offline Upload & Sell: Off
|
I think the Europe vs. US view is a tad black and white.
It's not that the intetion of the scandinavian system for instance isn't good, it is for the most part. It's just that in reality, in practical terms, it doesn't really work that well. At all. IMO. If I can pay the hospital bill for a fellow Norwegian who cannot aford it, that's fine by me. No worries. But - most kind of taxes increase and increase and increase, and still very few get the feeling - at all - that they recieve anything better back. Not services, not infrastructure, no nothing. At all. In fact, the opposite. Free public health care? Well... People die in the way too long hospital lines. People die because hospitals mess totally up. No one is held resposible. Patients' files are lost between doctors and hospitals because they are sent on 1980's floppy disks... Results are fatal. Etc. Etc. Etc. A guy was ready for heart surgery, put into sleep, but was awakened because two hospitals argued about who should perform the surgery. He died a few days later. The new Health Minister (former Foreign Minister...) preaches about the glory and awesomeness of Norwegian public healthcare -- while people die because of waiting lines and mistakes made - because of a total mess. And at the same time he himself use private health care. He sees no problem with this, he said. Etc. Etc. Etc. There are a million examples of this Norwegian elite's "do as I say, not as I do." The last 8 years, public sector has grown with a ridiculous amount. Has productivity or efficiency increased as well? Absolutely not! Norwegians are paying for a steadily increasing public sector's inefficiency and waste of money and resources. Many, many, many people are sick of this. They don't have a problem paying if they feel they get something better back - but they don't.
The oil has made Norway a very wealthy country. But it has also made it inefficient and with a way too large public sector which is for the most part a money drain. In public sector, no one is held responsible. The worst that could happen to a public employee a bit up in the system that does a terrible job, is change of position and a salary increase. No one is held responsible for anything. It's a blame game for a few weeks, then it is put at rest. Add that Norwegians are people who mostly avoids conflict and after some initial dissatisfaction accepts almost whatever is being introduced, being laws or taxes or etc., then you get a "pressure cooker".
There are many good things about the social democracy, but in reality, there are also A LOT of complete madness that goes with it - at least in Norway.
IMO.
|