Meanwhile, over in Sweden, things are less cool

Swedes fear aid system is overtaxed: Generous benefits are burdened by an aging population and sick-leave abuses.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - In the happy chaos of their two-bedroom apartment in central Stockholm, Mika and Carolina Laine interrupt each other in their enthusiasm to describe the cozy embrace of the Swedish welfare state.

Be still my heart!

As 4-year-old Georg plays Robin Hood and 2-year-old Annie learns to skip, the Laines talk about everything from generous paid leave for new parents to free tuition and generous stipends for university students.

"Even if we pay a lot in taxes, we get a lot," said Mika, 34, a middle-school teacher.

Funny how that works.

But like many Swedes who fret about the world's highest tax burden, worrisome demographic trends, and a puzzling explosion in sick leave, the Laines wonder how long it can last.

"I want the system to work and keep the standards we have today," said Carolina, 33. "But I'm afraid it's impossible."

You mean I have to buy a beer to get a free lunch?

But before we get to that part, how about some more bennies?

Income taxes top out at a marginal rate of 55 percent, compared with 38.6 percent in the United States, and high rates apply at much lower incomes. If retail prices seem high, that's partly because a walloping 25 percent value-added tax is built in.

In fact, 51 percent of Sweden's gross domestic product is consumed by taxes, the highest rate among the 30 developed countries tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At 29 percent and falling, the United States vies with Japan, South Korea and Ireland for the developed world's lowest tax burden.

Oops, here are the bennies:

The Laines offer a typical case. After each of the children's births, the couple split more than a year of state-paid parental leave. Now they collect monthly payments to help support each child.

When the children need a vaccination or run a fever, their medical care is free. Their subsidized day-care center, a 10-minute walk away, has four trained adults for 17 children.

Such benefits hugely ease the strains of parenthood, they say. Carolina said a Swedish friend recently married an American and moved to Minnesota. "But they plan to move here when they have children," she said.

True, Mika pays 30 percent of his $40,000 teaching salary in income tax. But that money might be said to recycle to his wife, a full-time student of clinical psychology at Stockholm University. Not only does she pay no tuition, but the government also pays her a stipend to cover living expenses.

"I do have to pay for my books," Carolina said.

Another young Swedish mother, asked about views of the Swedish welfare state, surveyed her social circle.

"I spoke to a few of my friends and said, 'Come up with something about the system that's bad,' " said Esther Goldman, 24, mother of a 10-month-old son. She got few complaints: "Everybody said we get so much, it's kind of cheeky to complain."
...
The fact that even the well-to-do receive tangible benefits from the system has preserved its broad popularity, said Agneta Karlsson, deputy secretary of the ruling Social Democratic Party, which has held power for most of the last seven decades.

"The Swedish idea is everybody pays and everybody gets something," said Karlsson, 41. "If only the poor receive something, the poor will be stigmatized, and the rich will say, 'Why should we pay?' "

What a great con - the government takes huge whopping hunks of their income but they're happy because they get "benefits". Muggers ought to try it - "Give me your wallet, but I'll give you 20 bucks." The only problem is when there is no "20 bucks".

More than 800,000 people - about a fifth of the workforce - are either on sick leave or early retirement for medical reasons, a rate far higher than in other European countries, according to government figures.

Fabian Wallen, an economist with the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, faults what he considers to be lax rules for determining who is ill.

"In Sweden you can be on sick leave basically forever," Wallen, 29, said. "You don't really have incentives to go back to work."

Not that there was much incentive in the first place. Hmm, maybe I can become an honorary Swede?

And there's more good news:

Similarly, in a sign of anxiety about the future, the Laines recently began paying about $30 a month into a private retirement account. They worry that state pensions might not survive the graying of the population, which will place a huge burden on a shrinking working-age population.
...
If sick leave is the short-term threat to the system, demographics pose a long-term danger. While the growing number of retirees poses problems for the United States, Sweden's generous benefits make the age shift potentially more catastrophic.

Wallen says the looming demographic challenge makes it essential that Sweden find ways to enlarge the economic pie that is being so equitably distributed.

"The basis for any society besides having a just legal system and all that is to have some kind of wealth creation," Wallen said.

Lotsa luck.

Yet another fad I missed

Japan's Empire of Cool: Country's Culture Becomes Its Biggest Export

TOKYO -- In the supercharged air of Shibuya, Tokyo's fiercely hip teen quarter, music videos by Japanese pop stars topping the charts throughout Asia boom from towering, outdoor liquid-crystal display screens. The streets below are clogged with hordes of young women wearing the Japanese schoolgirl look -- streetwalker's makeup, sexy stockings and plaid miniskirts -- styled by international fashion magazines as the height of child-delinquent chic.

We don't see many of those around here.

Under a galaxy of neon, cubicle-sized stores sell trendy trinkets, including phone mascots -- cute characters first dangled off cell phones here years ago, now common in Seoul and Hong Kong and seen in Sydney, New York and Paris.

Those either.

In the cacophony of cool, foreigners mingle with streams of Japanese descending by a cave-like hole into the entrance of Mandarake, the world's largest Japanese manga -- comics -- and anime department store. They buy original celluloids, or cels, from Japanese animation, most at about $30 each, along with comic books, action figures, posters and CDs. Hundreds of online orders come in daily to operators speaking Japanese, English, Spanish, French and Korean.

Company President Masuzo Furukawa, whose office is entered through an anime-like tube with round, orange electronic doors, is direct about the reason: "If it's Japanese, the world wants it. Japan is hot."

If I said that to any of the locals, they'd think I'd been spending too much time with a jug of corn squeezin's.

Even as this country of 127 million has lost its status as a global economic superpower and the national confidence has been sapped by a 13-year economic slump, Japan is reinventing itself -- this time as the coolest nation on Earth.

I'm sure that's a great consolation.

More than you want to know by following the link.

Flip Flop Howie

First it was Dean: Bin Laden guilt best determined by jury, but now it's Dean: Death To Osama. Deano's "base" isn't going to be happy.

Media News Flash From Burpelson Air Force Base

(Via FR) Weasley's got a new video puff piece:

Award-winning producer Linda Bloodworth unveils her newest film. The biopic, "American Son" is about the life and times of Wes Clark. This moving account features Clark's family, life-long friends and the men and women who served under his command. It details Clark's accomplishments and tells the story of this true American hero.

Warning - the above link will try to start playing it. Barf bags are in the seat back pocket in front of you.

But hold on a sec, the name "Linda Bloodworth" sounds very familiar. Oh yeah, I remember - Linda Bloodworth-Thomason - famous Hollywood friend of the Clintons who produced The Man from Hope amongst other Bubba puff pieces. She and her husband Harry are also famous for:

Getting the Clinton White House travel business for a company they partially owned after the civil service employees were fired by the Clintons.

Coaching Bubba on his "I did not have sex with that woman" delivery.

Giving Bubba's brother Roger a job to keep him gainfully employed and out of sight during Bubba's stint in the White House.

Bubba calling CBS on their behalf to resolve a billing dispute for one of their shows.

Arranging for Bubba to appear on the Johnny Carson show for a little image repair after his bomb at the 1988 Democrat convention.

Serving as perpetual makeover consultants for Hillary.

Producing another video puff piece for Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign.

Putting together a film apologia for Bubba entitled Hunting the President which will premiere in 2004. (Something to look forward to, I'm sure.)

And more that I can't be bothered to dig up. So one can't help but wonder why ole Linda is lending her propaganda talents to Weasley. But one can guess (Hat tip: Freepers):



Unfortunately, Linda left out some of the best parts of the Weasley saga (Hat tip: Broken Newz)

We don't see many preachers like that around here




But the best part is that some of the Kool-Aid Drinkers (1, 2) think Howie was way out of line for mentioning religion at all.

Merry Christmas to all!

Be prepared!

The Center for Consumer Freedom is on top of things with You'd Better Watch Out ... for Christmas Lawsuits! They suggest that you cover your butt Santa-wise with a Christmas Cookies Indemnification Agreement.

The agreement includes a number of "clauses" designed to protect you and your family from possible liability. By signing it before he eats your cookies, Kris Kringle agrees not to sue you on the basis of:

1) Failure to provide nutrition information and a list of ingredients (the "Grandma's Secret Recipe" clause);

2) Failure to caution of the potential for overeating because cookies taste too good and are provided at no cost;

3) Failure to advise that walking, biking, and jogging will shed pounds, but riding around on a sleigh will not;

4) Failure to warn that Christmas lights, lawn ornaments (plastic reindeer, snowmen, etc.) and other holiday decorations may constitute manipulative marketing to lure Santa into over-consumption.

5) Failure to offer "healthier" cookie alternatives (e.g., tofu bars);

6) Failure to counsel that cookies may be habit-forming and/or irresistible; and

7) Failure to notify that eating way too many cookies may lead to even greater levels of obesity for St. Nick (the "Sanity Clause").

No word on any required warning stickers.

Whew, that's a relief!

Bay Area faces holidays without little silver balls on baked goods

Procrastinators are in for a shock when they set out to make those last-minute holiday cookies, cakes and gingerbread houses. Store shelves are almost bare of the beloved, tooth-crunching decorations called dragees -- better known as "those little silver balls.''

Because of a Napa lawyer's lawsuit alleging that the shimmery mini-orbs are toxic, stores such as Sur La Table and Spun Sugar are selling off their last remaining stocks, and wholesalers and Internet suppliers simply won't sell sugar decorations filmed with silver, gold or copper to anyone in California.

No word on how many billion dragees you have to eat to suffer any deleterious effect from the silver content.

Distributors and retailers said they've settled with Pollock not because they believe their dragees are toxic but because a trial would cost far more than settling. But, like Beryl Loveland of Beryl's Cake Decorating and Pastry Supplies of Virginia, they're angry and think a trial would have proven that there's nothing wrong with a few dragees now and then.
...
At Spun Sugar, a candy- and cake-making specialty store in Berkeley, owner Linda Moreno is selling off the few sizes and shapes of the metallic decorations she has left, and says she can't get any more -- although she has no trouble getting the silver and gold leaf used in Indian sweets.

"It's the same stuff everyone's had for an eternity," she said. "I was always more worried about someone breaking a tooth."

Linda, don't give the lawyers any ideas!

It beats a new pair of socks. But not by much.

(Via Gizmodo) A Santa snowglobe computer mouse. They also have some with fish and dolphins.

A nice holiday story

Henry Miller at TCS provides Al Gore, Our Christmas Fruitcake:

The New York Times editorialized that more medical information about Vice-President Dick Cheney should be made public because where the president and vice-president of the United States are concerned, "privacy concerns are less important than the public's confidence that its leaders are fit." [22 December]

Fit? Fit? Where were the Times' concerns about the fitness of politicians in the face of Al Gore's obvious personality disorder and poor reality testing while for eight years he was a heartbeat -- and later, a few electoral votes -- away from the presidency?

While a Senator, Gore was notorious for his rudeness and insolence during hearings. A favorite trick was to pose a question and as the witness began to answer, Gore would begin a whispered conversation with another committee member or a staffer. If the witness paused in order that the senator not miss the response, Gore would instruct him to continue, then resume his private conversation, leaving no ambiguity: Not only is your testimony unimportant, I won't even pay you the courtesy of pretending to listen to it.

There's more by following the link, but I don't care for fruitcake.