Metal Reviews

Same logic applies to Euro countries; Paris, has what, 3 million people alone?

It's still apples and oranges.

Scandinavia is tiny, homogenous and doesn't have a military (to speak of).

a fairer comparison may be Australia to the US (yes I know our nations populations differ by hundreds of millions but economically we are similar) we have all but recovered from the GFC down here, or had before our government did a couple of extremely stupid things, which saw the Australian dollar exceed thehttp://metalreviews.com/phpBB2/index.php us dollar and make serious ground on the sterling and euro, now however thanks to an enormous carbon tax with no refunds for companies who actually take steps to reduce their cabon footprint or begin a process of transfer into "clean" energy and a "super tax" on our chief industry of mining our economy has gone to shit, or is rapidly heading that way anyway, because it is rapidly becoming impossible to sustain these big businesses with the taxes involved, using mining as the example they are taxed for using carbon at a rate which increases every month, then they are charged between fifty and sixty percent of the profits from the sale of minerals extracted through mining, it's as if the government is actually trying to eradicate mining in Australia leaving us with no significant national export

No he isn't a "socialist", per se, he is a statist.

Well, we'll never know whether or not Dr. Paul would have made a difference, now, will we?

Things are going to get rough, and likely we will be in another war in the ME. Good job America.

Off topic, but interesting nonetheless; have you heard about some of the southern states petitioning for secession? they are getting signatures.

Tehom said that the crisis in Europe happened because socialism is unsustainable. Europe prior to the financial crisis, in crisis stricken countries, most definitely did NOT have socialist governments. The rise of socialist movements (France, Catalonia, Scotland, Basques) is as a reaction to austerity. Except the Greeks, they're putting neo-nazis in power.

Really? How is it apples and oranges? As far as size, there are many countries far smaller than Scandinavian ones in Europe who have suffered from austerity. Homogeneous? Actually, Scandinavian countries have pretty high levels of immigration, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are part of the EU and Norway is part of Schengen, so no border controls. Doesn't have a military? Tell that to the Finns.

This is beside the point- Tehom said that the crisis in Europe happened because socialism is unsustainable. Europe prior to the financial crisis, in crisis stricken countries, most definitely did NOT have socialist governments. The rise of socialist movements (France, Catalonia, Scotland, Basques) is as a reaction to austerity. Except the Greeks, they're putting neo-nazis in power.

Active personnel 34,700 (ranked 79th )

As of 2011, Statistics Sweden reported that around 19.6% or 1.858.000 inhabitants of Sweden had foreign background, defined as born abroad or born in Sweden by two parents born abroad.[9]




[edit] DemographicsAccording to Eurostat, in 2010, there were 1.33 million foreign-born residents in Sweden, corresponding to 14.3% of the total population. Of these, 859 000 (9.2%) were born outside the EU and 477 000 (5.1%) were born in another EU Member State.[10][11] The largest groups were:

1. Finland (166,723)
2. Former Yugoslavia (155,166)
3. Iraq (125,499)
4. Iran (63,828)
5. Poland (49,518)
6. Germany (48,442)
7. Denmark (44,951)
8. Turkey (43,909)
9. Norway (43,058)
10. Somalia (40,165)

According to 2012 figures from Statistics Denmark, 89.6% of Denmark’s population of over 5,580,516 was of Danish

Of these 590 000[6] immigrants and their descendants:

200 000 (34%)[7] have a Western background (Norway, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK, Poland and Iceland; definition: Nordic countries, EU countries, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican State, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.).
390 000 (66%)[8] have a non-Western background (Turkey, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran and Thailand; all other countries).

As of 2012, an official study shows that 86.2%[4] of the total population are ethnic Norwegians and more than 660 000 individuals (13.2%)[4] are migrants and their descendants; numbering 110 000 second generation migrants born in Norway.

Of these 660 000 immigrants and their descendants:

335 000 (51%)[4] have a Western (Australia, North America, elsewhere in Europe)
325 000 (49%)[4] have a non-Western background (Turkey, Morocco, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran).

Ethnic groups
93% Icelandic, 7.0% other

A statist? I'll accept that. Whatever that implies.

As for Ron Paul: http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washin ... port-finds

We would've gone to war in the ME if Romney was in office too.

Secession won't happen. Silliness. Why would secession be justified when no one tried doing that during Bush? I don't see what is so radical that Obama is doing that hasn't been done before. No one discussed seceding as Carter or Hoover fucked shit up. Is an awful healthcare plan all that scary?

Who cares about Romney? You think I support that clown?
As for secession: I'm not saying it will happen, but who knows with this country? revolution, violent revolution at that is in our blood. Could be an interesting four years.

Double-billed his flights?

Yeah, ok, he's obviously worse than Hitler.

I wasn't implying that you support Romney. I'm saying the re-election of Obama has nothing to do with us entering into the Middle East once again. I doubt there was a legitimate candidate in this entire season that would do something differently in terms of foreign policy. They're all the same, fucking hacks.

Double-billing expenses isn't evil, but for a supposed man of principle it's fucking crooked. If he wants a smaller deficit, why is he charging the govt for his flights when they are already paid elsewhere? All I'm saying is that he isn't the saint he is made out to be.

Lambaste as you see fit: www.good.is/posts/a-liberal-s-letter-to ... than-ever/

I'm not saying the man is a saint or perfect or anything like that and it is a bit of a black eye, but the two ring circus that is American politics needs to be broken. Anyway, he's not in the picture so there isn't much sense in talking about him, now is there?

I think I'll pass on the reading material, though; not really interested in any more liberal views, so thanks, but no thanks.

Long story short: stop being crazy fundamentalists and start being traditional conservatives once again. Put a plug in the abortion whackos and start discussing smaller govt, responsible markets and fiscal conservatism. Nothing groundbreaking, but it has caused some hubbub elsewhere. Social conservatism is a dead-end and the Democrats didn't win last week as much as social conservatism lost.

do I count as one of these new people with their heads on straight? because it seems for the most part my observations on similarities between your discussion of the US and my knowledge of Australia are being ignored completely

also regarding taxation, in Australia we have income thresholds which dictate taxes, so people earning less then the minimum threshold do not get taxed on their earnings, that's set out so that basically if you're earning minimum wage you won't be taxed, with each earning threshold the taxation percentage increases so that high income earners pay the bulk of taxes, I imagine this is the way it works in the US?

The American dream is a lie, it always has been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Defence_Forces






Anyway, onward:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographi ... mmigration




80% Swede and the next largets group are Finns... (BTW, Finland isn't part of Scandinavia, just saying)

next

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographi ... statistics







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographi ... #Ethnicity




and finally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Iceland



Yeah, how silly of me to state that those countrys are homogenous and have no military to speak of.

And what about the Scottish dream?

By saying Scandinavia, did you mean for example that vaunted city of Stockholm with its magnificent ghettoes, where the beautiful maidens have to dye their golden hairs brown or black in order not to risk too big a chance of being raped by those wonderfully enriching African or Middle Eastern types?



Or did you mean a few countries that either put a lid on immigration too late or are still run by multiculturalist left-wing dimwits too much in love with their new electorate to see the problems they're causing day by day in practically all the major cities in Europe?