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could you imagine referring to displacing lower income families as "on some skate shit" for profit you don't in any way need
Capitalism making your country great? right.. I laugh everytime I see this. There is so much wrong with your country.
Just look at the examples in this thread. Neighborhoods that have extreme rent, and then just few blocks away is a ghetto thats dangerous to walk trough.
Pure capitalism have created you a country that is extremely class seperated, with run downed cities and so much homeless people and crime. I live in Sweden, which has been built with a democratic reform-socialism (not the revolutionary kind that never worked) - and yes, we have somewhat high taxes. I make around $5000 month and I get out $3530 after taxes are payed, thats a deduction of 29.6%.
What do I get for this? For one, all our cities are very clean, and you wont ever see any run down houses. That doesnt exist here. We have rent control. I own an apartment, about 90m2 and I pay about $800 for the loan for it, and that would be somewhat in the more expensive segment. And I live downtown in one of the major cities here (Gothenburg). Its a very safe place to live as well, and I have never, ever seen a gun, except on a cop of course or in other countries.
We have free healthcare, so I dont need to pay for an insurance. you do have to pay some - a visit to the hospital would cost you about $30 - and this includes anything. A birth, broken leg, helicopter transport etc. Once you, in a year, payed up to $123, everything will be free. Medicine etc. Thats if you over 18, if your a minor its free.
If I have a child, me and my partner will get 10 days of, payed. Just for the birth. When the child is born, you will get 480 days off payed. You can divided this as you want, or dont use them, except 90 days thats reserved to each parent.
We also have 5 weeks payed vacation, by law. And a minimum wage, that never forces anyone to work more then one job to get by, if you work full-time.
If you get layed off, we have a social security net that will help you out until you get a new job. Daycare cost about $120, but gets subsidized so its basically free. Also, university is free. Actually, when entering university you get a loan from the goverment that you pay back once you have an income (4% per year of total income), so you dont need to work on the side if you dont want to when you study.
There is so much more, great public transportation, strong, independent media, transparent politics, equality, workers right.
I have absolutely no education, but still have a great job.
My costs would be apartment - car loan payment - internet - home insurance. This equals about $1400, and leaves me with $2130 left after taxes and fixed expenses, and I then have all the fruits of a socialists society.
We have our challenges and faults like any other country, but the capitalist way of the USA you give so hight appraisals of, is nothing I would ever want.
Hey Jenkins, this unrelated, but I'm curious about Gothenburg. I see it stays rather warm through the winter, so I was wondering if you can skate all winter. Does much snow accumulate? Do you have indoor skate parks, or do you have to skate parking lots/underground?
EDIT: 
As said, pretty rainy on the winter. Kinda cold, because we are close to the coast, so the wind kills you. Some snow here and there, but that mostly rains of. No outdoors skating during the winter, thats for sure. Only got one park though, the other one closed. Was pretty shitty anyways. The one we have is pretty cool though its inside a mountain. I used to work there, as a teacher at the Gothenburg Skategymnasium. Josef Scott Jatta from Sour Skateboards was one of my students amongst others. Here is an old clip of me there that the students filmed:
http://bunkeberget.org/ Pretty cool surroundings, but a bit mouldy. Trasher used to have a background image on their website with Rick Howard doing a bs ollie in the same ramp as from the clip above
Topic: MIKEY TAYLOR GENTRIFYING NEIGHBOURHOODS. (Read 28099 times)