Conference turris::scandia

11.0. "A Mass. legislator in Sweden" by TLE::SAVAGE () Mon Dec 16 1985 10:07

  In the summer of 1983, Tom Gallagher, then a member of the 
  Massachusetts House of Representatives, traveled to Sweden to "learn
  just how and why the Swedes structured their society so differently
  from ours."  He went as a guest of the Swedish Bicentennial Fund,
  an organization that sponsors trips to Sweden by Americans.

  What follows are excerpts from an article by Gallagher, published in
  The Boston Globe Magazine, July 15, 1984:

  Sverker Gustavson, a Swedish government housing policy expert, and 
  member of the editorial board of 'Tiden,' the theoretical magazine
  of the governing Social Democratic Party, speaking: "I understand
  that your social scientists in America have a concept of 'targeting.'
  The better a program is targeted to only those in need, the better
  designed it is considered to be in your country.  Here we look at
  it differently. We try to design our social service programs so that
  they are good enough for everyone."

  [An] aspect in the success of Sweden's form of rent control is that
  it does not attempt to cure all the problems of income distribution.
  Rather than charging lower rents for citizens of lower income, 
  officials have implemented a separate housing subsidy program to 
  supplement the incomes of those in need.  These subsidies are 
  available to homeowners as well as tenants.  It appears to work.
  I was unable to tell the difference between public and private
  developments.  

  When I asked Gustavson where the worst housing was so I could 
  photograph it for comparison with the worst back home, he informed
  me there was no really bad housing in Sweden - only some develop-
  ments that were "scandalous from an architectural point of view."
  When I pressed him, he suggested I look at some older, private
  housing in a particular section of Stockholm.  Upon visiting the 
  area I was unable to figure out which buildings he had in mind.
  The neighborhood was the type that in America would be called
  "quaint" - certainly not substandard.

  The "architectural scandals" Gustavson referred to are simply some
  of the more avant-garde designs of high-rise buildings dominating
  recent construction in the Stockholm area.  While high rises are
  not everyone's cup of tea, my wanderings turned up no slums.
    
  My travels also alerted me to something else strange to an 
  American's eye: an unusually large number of women traveling
  alone at night in a metropolitan area.  In America, this 
  demonstration of safe conditions is usually achieved only with
  a very visible police presence.  And yet in Stockholm, few 
  police were in evidence.
  
  In Sweden, child-care leave means time off from work for either
  parent after a birth.  Child-care leave is six months - paid,
  whether a parent works for the government or private industry.
  The leave may be taken over any period within the first year 
  after birth.  It may be divided between the parent in any pro-
  portion they choose.

  And the parents need not be married.  ...anything which extends
  an individual's options for starting both a family and a career
  should be encouraged.  
  
  ...the function of [the Swedish] government is to reduce the worry
  of the individual.

  ...the United States is unusual among wealthy nations in not having
  a national health-care system.  Most Americans must worry not only
  about their physical health, but about the financial disaster that
  illness may bring if they are uninsured, poorly insured, or if 
  their health-care insurance has lapsed.  A Swede does not know that
  second fear.  By my calculations, hospitalization in Sweden would
  cost a worker the equivalent of about $2 a day - no matter what
  treatment the worker required.

  My cursory examination of the health-care system indicated that it
  was similar to an American heath-maintenance organization.

  The Social Democrats have ruled, usually by narrow parliamentary
  margins, for 45 of the past 51 years.  They have moved the spectrum
  of Swedish politics to the point where the opposition, widely known
  as the 'bourgeois parties," does not dare advocate dismantling 
  social programs that exceed the dreams of the U.S. Democratic 
  Party's left wing.  

  One of the reasons the Social Democrats win by such narrow margins
  is that the opposition has conceded so many points to them over 
  the years that the center of Swedish politics has moved inexorably
  to the left.  And all of this the Social Democrats have done in a
  democratic, polite manner that is considered "typically Swedish."

  A broad array of social programs guarantees the Swedes' ability to
  meet most of their basic needs, even if they are unemployed.  And 
  ... the next job a Swedish worker obtains [is guaranteed to] pay a
  much greater percentage of the former wage than would be the case
  in the United States. ... The frenzy for increased labor "conces-
  sions" in America [fueled by the claim that unionized American 
  workers are overpaid in comparison with the majority of nonunionized 
  Americans] has little relevance in Sweden.

  ...an unemployed Swede is likely to return to work much more quickly
  than an unemployed American.  During my stay, unemployment reached
  3 percent - a shocking level in Sweden.  [The Government] ... uses
  public jobs or publicly supported jobs and training programs to get
  people back to work very quickly.

  Confronted with the same perceived capital shortage [as the U.S.],
  Swedish Social Democrats have opted to increase corporate taxes and
  directly invest the resulting revenue in the Swedish economy.  That
  way there can be no doubt that the money will be productively 
  invested and not sent abroad.

  No matter how I turn over my Swedish visit in my mind, I cannot 
  escape the conclusion that the Swedes have developed a social system
  superior to ours, although not a perfect one.  Certainly Sweden has
  not invented immunity to contemporary problems.

  A politician from Taxachusetts and a politician from Sweden....birds
  of a feather!
  
  [This snide remark comes to you from Cow Hampshire]