Phydeaux -> RE: Wealth Inequality (4/7/2014 1:47:53 PM)
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ORIGINAL: eulero83 I voted for sweden. I edited the picture shrinking the swedish bar by average tax rate (46% in sweden and 24% in the usa) and GDP at purchasing power parity per capita (40k sweden and 51k usa) so I resized it by a factor of: (54*40)/(76*51)= 56% [image]http://imageshack.com/a/img541/9031/7oah.png[/image] This means the average swedish has a lifestyle better than 80% of the us citizens. By the way nominal gdp per capita in sweden is 56k and 52k in the usa this means that also their economy in a free market world is working better. Amusing to adjust it the way you propose. Since sweden is doing so well, perhaps it should start paying its fair share for its defense. "Sweden’s defense capability has been seriously weakened by more than 10 years of low spending by governments on defense, Björklund said. The armed forces’ budget for 2014 amounts to $6.2 billion, equivalent to 1.05 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and down from 1.5 percent of GDP in 2006. " That “simulated” nighttime attack on mainland Sweden’s defense, industrial and government facilities took place March 29. The exercise was led by two Tu-22M3 Backfire heavy bombers escorted by four Su-27 Flanker fighters. Götland’s strategic value for Russia is further heightened by the location of the $11 billion Nord Stream-operated Baltic Sea gas pipeline, which runs near the island’s eastern coastline. The pipeline transports 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to markets in Western Europe. “Cutbacks meant that Sweden offered no response to this act, which took place less than 32 kilometers from Götland and Swedish airspace,” Danielsson said. “Instead of Gripens, it was left to two Danish F-16s from NATO’s Quick Action Alert station in Lithuania to scramble and shadow the war-games aircraft back to Russia.” Sweden, since the incident has asked for fast track admission into nato. And the nato guidelines call for minimum 2% spending. So much for huge defense expenditures, eh? The fact is that sweden spends an unsustainably low amount of money on defense.
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