Sunday 27 October 2019

Swedish 'lycka'


Is the ‘luck of the Swedes’ a rationalisation of envy (cf. Previous post). The migrants want what they have without the history that the Swedes have put into it. One thinks of the golfer who remarked ‘ I’m lucky and the more I practice the luckier I get’. There has been a long process which has culminated in a democracy which gives the most in foreign aid as a percentage of its G.N.I.

Out of the DAC countries, Sweden was the most generous – it was the first to meet the 0.7% target in 1974 – donating 1.1% of its GNI to foreign aid, which works out at about $6.2bn. Next came Luxembourg, at 1.07%, then Norway at 0.99% and Denmark at 0.85%. The UK was fifth, higher than Germany at 0.41%, France at 0.36% and Switzerland at 0.49%. In total the UK spent $19bn on foreign aid last year, compared to $16bn from Germany and $10bn from France.

So they do a lot for the ‘Chadian’ who is working on his luck at home but the ‘Chadian’ who is unskilled and is taken in often ends up S.O. Swede Luck. Just Google ‘migrant problems in Sweden’ to get a general idea of how sudden mass low-skilled immigration creates problems for the host country no matter how well meaning they are. You might say that the final stage of envy namely destroying that which you cannot achieve, has been attained.

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