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Comment by lillecarl | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure it's related to your question of "Is there an important sense in which Sweden has more abundant resources than, say, the US?".

The answer is yes, in some cases. Because wealth is distributed so that everyone can afford things like education, healthcare, daycare. If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps that's different in an important sense from if 0 people have a superyacht and everyone gets access to education and food.

You asked for an example about, I handed you one, it seems like you accidentally missed the example in a pursuit to prove the American superiority.

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>If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps

In this hypothetical, the median income will be very low.

I'm not trying to be combative, I just try to correct misconceptions when I see them. It seems like some people have the misconception that the US is a place of a few superyachts and mostly foodstamps. That's not really the case.

Indeed, very over-exaggerated example. The point about distribution still stands. Sweden just uses taxes to do it rather than equal income.

Fun fact, there's no legal minimum wage in Sweden, it's handled by unions or individuals, not the government.

>Fun fact, there's no legal minimum wage in Sweden

Interesting!

> It seems like some people have the misconception that the US is a place of a few superyachts and mostly foodstamps. That's not really the case.

It's what i see on the news (not superyachts that much), on the "internet" (Reddit).

I understand reality is different, and that it's also different across states. But the stereotypes come from somewhere/something.

I'm sad that we don't have better workplace equality. We should take after NA in regulating resumes. We're allowed photos, names, gender, well anything we want to put on our resume we can. This could/does cause bias way too early in the selection process for jobs.

It doesn't explain why women, who on average perform better in school choose to pursue a career in Healthcare, which is "the worst" industry to work in over here. When there are so many other industries where they could make a great living with less stress, better schedules and more cash on hand.

> Because wealth is distributed so that everyone can afford things like education, healthcare, daycare. If 1 out of a 100 has a superyacht and 99 live on foodstamps that's different in an important sense from if 0 people have a superyacht and everyone gets access to education and food.

From your username I’m going to assume you can read Swedish, in which case I’ll recommend Andreas Cervanka’s latest book on the redistribution of wealth in Sweden in recent decades, in favor of the richest in society:

https://www.adlibris.com/se/bok/girig-sverige-sa-blev-folkhe...

Thanks for the tip, purchased!

Even before reading, yes it's indeed changed over the years, though I'm relatively young so I haven't experienced the shift myself.

The book arrived today, I'll get back to you :)

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