Malmö: largest city in Sweden

"- Bobb -" wrote in message
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"TheNewsGuy(Mike)" wrote in message
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Alohacyberian wrote:
"mikeos" wrote in message ...
Last year I went to Malmö, over the Oresund bridge from Copenhagen. I
was shocked at how dirty and run down it was. The bus drove through a
dirty, seemingly early 1960s shopping area badly in need of demolition.

You were witnessing the beauties of socialism. KM

Check out the quality of living:
http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr - there are 28 cities ranked
better than any US city . It seems the "socialist" Sweden and Canada with
Vancouver (4) Toronto (15) and Ottawa (16) Stockholm (20) Montreal (22)
Calgary (25) rank a lot better than spectacular Honolulu (29) (lucky
you! - and I mean that) and Honolulu is not representative of the rest of
American cities, for sure.
So give me a nice "socialist" city, any day - with good infrastructure
and services for it's citizens, thank you.


I've asked a LOT of people in Scandinavia how they felt about socialism
and each said - "it is wonderful". Yeah they pay about 6 months wages in
taxes, but they like all of their time off, paid healthcare, etc etc.
To me all of the taxes were excessive, but they are 'used to it'. Not one
person has ever told me that " taxes are too high".



You must have talked to the wrong people. I have visited Denmark numerous
times and everyone I ask has some complaint about the high taxes. The main
complaint is the 100% to 180% tax on buying a car. People also aren't happy
about having the highest VAT rate in the world at 25% (known as MOMS). When
asked, everyone knows people who work for cash to avoid the high income
taxes (known as "black money"). Danes flock across the border to Germany to
load up on beer, wine, aquavit, soft drinks and candy to avoid the high
Danish taxes. Some Danes even permanently move across the Danish border to
live in Danish towns in Schleswig, Germany to avoid the high Danish taxes.

Danish children are programmed with propaganda all through their school
years that the Danish/Scandinavian social welfare state with very high taxes
is the best type of society, but not all of them are very happy with it when
they are taxpaying adults.

catalpa wrote:

Danish children are programmed with propaganda all through their school
years that the Danish/Scandinavian social welfare state with very high taxes
is the best type of society, but not all of them are very happy with it when
they are taxpaying adults.

I imagine that Denmark has enough alternative right-wing politicians for
them to vote for if they are generally discontented.

catalpa wrote:

You must have talked to the wrong people. I have visited Denmark numerous
times and everyone I ask has some complaint about the high taxes. The main
complaint is the 100% to 180% tax on buying a car.


You're right. I have been to Denmark several times, and almost every one
of them has mentioned the 180% tax on new cars. AAMOF, it came up very
quickly on my first visit. A Danish friend had arranged for a friend of
his to pick me up at the airport and take me to my hotel near Neastved.
The guy had a brand new car and one of the first things he said was
that he had paid for three cars but only got one.


asked, everyone knows people who work for cash to avoid the high income
taxes (known as "black money"). Danes flock across the border to Germany to
load up on beer, wine, aquavit, soft drinks and candy to avoid the high
Danish taxes. Some Danes even permanently move across the Danish border to
live in Danish towns in Schleswig, Germany to avoid the high Danish taxes.

They love the tax free goods on the ferry. One friend had owned a
Mercedes and he always took it to Germany for service. Even with the
time it took to drive to Germany and to pay the ferry, it was cheaper to
have work done there.

Even car rentals are very expensive. FWIW, on my first trip there, 10
years ago, the plan was to pick up a car at the airport, do what we had
to do in Denmark and then drive down through Germany and France and drop
the car in Paris. We looked at the cost of doing that from various
cities. We ended up doing it through Hamburg because the cost of the two
week rental and drop off in Paris was $1,000 (Cdn). To do it from Paris
would have been $1800, from Amsterdam was $2400, and from Copenhagen it
was $3600

It is a beautiful country and the people are really nice. I have good
reasons to go there, but it is just too damned expensive.

"mikeos" wrote in message
...
catalpa wrote:

I imagine that Denmark has enough alternative right-wing politicians for
them to vote for if they are generally discontented.

"Hmmm. Nice to see that you are blessed with a self-fulfilling imagination
even if Danes don't share it. What some call "imagination" others call
delusion. KM
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