I thought you might be interested..._shahara_March 13 2006, 18:26:59 UTC
Wow Thea. That is an amazing story which says so much about our system and society. I thought you might find it interesting that here in Sweden the welfare system is set up differently so as to make homelessness less likely to happen. It works like this: if you are homeless, the state (national government) will provide you with a home. If you are a drug addict or alcoholic they will put you in a detox program to get sober before giving you a home but, once you are out of the program you will have a home. The Swedes consider it the job of the nation to take care of all the citizens and that means that every Swede is entitled to a place to live. However, there is an unfortunate loop hole in this system; that is if you are homeless and both a drug addict and an alcoholic, you can't be in both detox programs at once and therefore wont be provided a place to live. But homelessness in the U.S. is looked upon as very sad because the Swedish ideal is that the community of the nation should take care of the individuals of the nation. Their welfare system is overall really wonderful and individuals are willing to pay the high taxes associated with this system to make this ideal happen.
And, on another note, you mentioned to bus system and I've been taking the bus here everyday and it's also very different. The buses are nice, like charter buses, and run all the time. It's a very reliable form of transportation and very widely used. Between the buses and train systems, most people don't even own cars. Public transportation is much more convenient than in the U.S. It's been a real learning experience to see the differences between the U.S. system and the Swedish system. It tells me something about our U.S. ideals and where our priorities lay... and makes me a bit sad too.
I hope you don't mind me taking up so much space in your journal, I just thought you might be interested...
Re: I thought you might be interested...spideyjMarch 13 2006, 18:49:54 UTC
Just as Thea says she wishes everyone would have to take public transit for a year, I wish everyone would have to live overseas for a year, preferably in a third world country. Having been poor (and nearly homeless), I sometimes feel a class gap - my values for money seem to be different from many of the people I know, and it pains me at times. This has been a particular issue in the Baha'i community - trying to design programs that meet diverse needs is a challenge. The wealthier Baha'is wish to charge tuition fees for our Sunday school classes - they feel that people will value our services more if we charge for them. This would exclude other members of our community from participation, even if scholarships are offered or tuition waived, something the wealthier members of our community don't seem to understand.
Re: I thought you might be interested..._shahara_March 13 2006, 19:06:13 UTC
I guess what I notice is not so much a class gap as an ideological gap. (In fact, it is considered rude to show that you are of a higher or richer class, to some extent. It's believed that everyone should be of about equal in class and you don't show it off if you do have more because it may make others feel lesser.) Even though Sweden is considered a individualistic society, they seem to be more community oriented than is my experience in the U.S. We have an idea in the U.S. that if for some reason you're homeless or poor, that it's somehow your own fault and that's not always the case. (It seems to me to be a way of rationalizing capitalism and class difference.) Did I mention that everyone in Sweden has the right to higher education. Not just high school but college too... and they get paid to go to school. And have the right to leave a job for up to 3 years and have that job waiting for them when they finish their degree. A home, an education, and health care are all basic rights in Sweden. People take care of each other and, in return, are assured of being taken care of if they need it. It just seems so basically human and, yet, it's not something that we do as much in the U.S. That makes me sad.
Re: I thought you might be interested...lemurlingMarch 13 2006, 20:34:51 UTC
I think the idea of serving others is a pretty powerful way to bring equality to the world. If each of us had had to spend a year, either in Americorp, or the PeaceCorps, or something like CityYear, that serves inner cities, we'd have a stronger society. It's easy to say this, not having had any experience like that, of course, but I sure could have used it, just going to school part-time for a year after high school, and serving in a foreign country, or in East LA, or wherever. I've done a little traveling, and I would love to live in France for a year, heck, if I could keep my same job and not be impoverished myself at the end of it, I might be willing to live somewhere third-world even. But otherwise I don't have the courage or the conviction to do it now, the way Dorie did, and sacrifice the progress I've made in my career, or the chance to maybe own a little something, someday. So I try to reassure my conscience that when I retire, I will teach or find some similar way to serve. But I wish someone had pushed me into that kind of opportunity when I was young and lost and wrapped up in myself and my lower-middle-class angst. I have my own ways of gaining perspective now, but I could have used a massive dose of it then, and been a much better person for it.
Re: I thought you might be interested...lemurlingMarch 13 2006, 20:25:41 UTC
I don't mind at all, and I am interested. European-style socialism is my political ideology of choice. I would certainly pay higher taxes myself without protest if I knew that it was going to support those who need help, who are unable to escape whatever vicious cycle they're in, be it sickness, addiction, poverty, homelessness, on their own. I've been meaning to cross-post a story in an LJ-friend's journal, about how a scientist is doing amazing work on how poverty and deprivation actually stunt our brains, creating a situation where the person who grew up constantly poor and stressed and undereducated is actually being given yet another obstacle, one of physiology, to climb over on any attempt to escape to a better life. Fascinating stuff, especially how the effects might be reversed if the person is given a better life with fewer stressors. There's ties in this to mental illnesses like depression too.
America worships the idol of independence, that people are all free to succeed or fail equally. The truth that the playing field has never been level--and never will be, and can't be expected to be--questions too much of what our society is based on to be acknowledged. It is against the interests of the upper class to acknowledge this truth, because to begin to raise up the impoverished, wealth must be redistributed.
Re: I thought you might be interested..._shahara_March 13 2006, 21:39:44 UTC
America worships the idol of independence, that people are all free to succeed or fail equally. The truth that the playing field has never been level--and never will be, and can't be expected to be--questions too much of what our society is based on to be acknowledged. It is against the interests of the upper class to acknowledge this truth, because to begin to raise up the impoverished, wealth must be redistributed.
That's it exactly! That is the crux of the problem. The Swedish system is really worth studying; it's a pretty amazing system and one I admire very much. On a side note, though, I do wonder how well a system of that sort would work in a larger country like the U.S. Sweden only has 9 million people in the whole country and the U.S. has almost 300 million (California alone has almost 36 million).
And, on another note, you mentioned to bus system and I've been taking the bus here everyday and it's also very different. The buses are nice, like charter buses, and run all the time. It's a very reliable form of transportation and very widely used. Between the buses and train systems, most people don't even own cars. Public transportation is much more convenient than in the U.S. It's been a real learning experience to see the differences between the U.S. system and the Swedish system. It tells me something about our U.S. ideals and where our priorities lay... and makes me a bit sad too.
I hope you don't mind me taking up so much space in your journal, I just thought you might be interested...
Reply
Just as Thea says she wishes everyone would have to take public transit for a year, I wish everyone would have to live overseas for a year, preferably in a third world country. Having been poor (and nearly homeless), I sometimes feel a class gap - my values for money seem to be different from many of the people I know, and it pains me at times. This has been a particular issue in the Baha'i community - trying to design programs that meet diverse needs is a challenge. The wealthier Baha'is wish to charge tuition fees for our Sunday school classes - they feel that people will value our services more if we charge for them. This would exclude other members of our community from participation, even if scholarships are offered or tuition waived, something the wealthier members of our community don't seem to understand.
Reply
Reply
Reply
America worships the idol of independence, that people are all free to succeed or fail equally. The truth that the playing field has never been level--and never will be, and can't be expected to be--questions too much of what our society is based on to be acknowledged. It is against the interests of the upper class to acknowledge this truth, because to begin to raise up the impoverished, wealth must be redistributed.
Reply
That's it exactly! That is the crux of the problem. The Swedish system is really worth studying; it's a pretty amazing system and one I admire very much. On a side note, though, I do wonder how well a system of that sort would work in a larger country like the U.S. Sweden only has 9 million people in the whole country and the U.S. has almost 300 million (California alone has almost 36 million).
Reply
Leave a comment