Quote:
Originally Posted by kool maudit
Sweden has badly mishandled its (customary Western) attempt to balance falling native birthrates through immigration, but it has had a good century economically.
Like I said above, Stockholmers are a little more than twice as economically productive as Montrealers.
Could Quebec use the Scandinavian countries as a model for more than the social democratic niceties? These are independent countries with their own cultures and languages that nonetheless manage levels of economic output that are higher on a per capita basis than those of both French and I believe English Canada. This despite lacking the natural resources of Canada; this is particularly true in Denmark, but even Sweden is only 450,000 km2 versus 1.6 million km2 for Quebec.
Why is Sweden so much more productive, then?
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Perhaps because Northern Europeans in general and Scandanavians in particular are willing to pay, through taxes, for the types of things that they know will make them more productive? Top notch tansit, infrastructure, schools, social programs save money in the long run. We want all that here only nobody is willing to pay for it - not if it means foregoing the 4th bathroom, 3rd car, flatscreen in every room.
In low tax/no tax North America the shareholder comes first and we seem to be more interested in lining develper’s pockets and subsidizing unsustainable suburban lifestyles than maintaining our schools, sewers, sidewalks, public housing, public spaces and on and on.
I don’t see this changing any time soon under the Trump, Ford et al regimes.