The more I read and understand Swedish Politics, the more I just love that country.

They have forced me to change my understanding of politics, including socialism.

1/

Over the years, I've made the important distinction of stating that I am for socialism in issues of liberty but overall, politically, I am a social democrat.

Sweden have reinforced this statement for me and led me to a greater understanding of what it means to me.

2/

Many people believe socialism is about who OWNS the means of production, but this is simply not the case.

Sweden for example does not own the means of production, what it instead does is what many capitalist countries do in that it regulates and taxes.

3/

A better way to describe Sweden is that it has a controlled capitalism where the most important function is social welfare

There is indeed a "class structure" but not one so you would notice

This is where you introduce the word that makes me fall in love with Sweden, lagom

4/

So what is lagom? It means "moderate" or "just enough" and this is how they approach life.

The idea is that as a majority, Swedish people have decided that greed has no place in their society.

5/

This leads to the highest rate in the world. 51.7%

This is often used by Tories and Republicans to scare people of the "dangers" of socialism.

In this case, the danger here is basically an insurance policy that almost always pays out.

6/

Your healthcare? Not a concern.

Your education? Fully paid.

You are supported in every facet that is important to having a stable and happy life.

7/

Sweden have proven that capitalism and socialism can co-exist if the main focus is the good of everyone.

Sweden's economy is not built on winning a natural resource lottery either. It is both import, export and curiously there is another driving factor.

8/

Entrepeneurship. A happy knock-on effect from Sweden's social democratic ideals is that people are able to pursue their passions without fear of money being the main factor.

They know they can fail and yet they do anything but.

9/

The freedom of expression mixed with high levels of education is an environment where creativity unsurprisingly flourishes.

Those "lazy students" who we would say are "free loading" are in fact a huge bonus to the Swedish economy.

10/

You see when you start caring about other people, when you start finding a middle ground and you give people a purpose and make them feel part of something greater than themselves, what you get are the last thing countries like the US and Britain want.

11/

Educated free thinkers, with unions, organised and capable of critical thought and compassion for their fellow man.

Not what you want when your only goal for a society is to keep them divided while you run off to the bank.

Up the fucking Swedes!

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