I'm ready for the Swedish approach.
Fairness for all. Freedom to excel.
And hell will freeze over before we agree to make the individual sacrifices necessary to bring this about.
Until those who have are willing to sacrifice, like they do in Sweden (60% tax), equal opportunity cannot exist.
To date, America has been loathe to personally sacrifice.
And what do the Swedes get in return for their sacrifice:
They all get free higher education. What is that worth?
http://www.sweden.gov.se/...
They all get free medical care. What is that worth?
And, yes, if you dig, you can find problems.
They get affordable housing. What is that worth?
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/...
Crime is relatively low. What is that worth?
http://www.cga.ct.gov/...
Certainly, Sweden has its problems. I am not suggesting it is Utopian; however, Sweden is trotted out by the conservatives among us as being a BAD PLACE. "We don't want to be like Sweden!" Well, I spent a few hours with some Swedish college students at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah recently. Sweden sounded really good according to them. They were clean cut, smart, friendly, humorous, and healthy kids. Sweden must be doing something right. BTW, they were from working class families, not richies.
And yet, even under what Americans consider the tax BURDEN the Swedes have agreed to, there are still those in Sweden who become wealthy. So they haven't lost the freedom to excel.
It's as if we look through a different opportunity window. A window that shows a rosy picture for us IF we give very little and sacrifice very little.
And we wonder why 1% of Americans are in prison. The highest per capita prison population in the whole world. Nice!
And now hundreds of thousands are homeless and millions are unemployed. I doubt many will rejoin the middle class ever again.
Our health care system excludes millions. Heartless.
Our education has fallen below most of the Western nations and many less wealthy countries. Brilliant.
Perhaps it is time to look through the window of opportunity the Swedes look through.
Social responsibility is NOT socialism. It is fairness.