Sweden’s ‘socialist nightmare’ on The Daily Show
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Sweden is often demonised in some quarters stateside as a socialist nightmare where suicide is a national sport and abject misery is the norm. The Daily Show investigates, with hilarious consequences:
Part 1…
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Stockholm Syndrome | ||||
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… and Part 2
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 2 | ||||
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April 26th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Now, why is it a bad thing for a pop start to live in a modest yet perfectly adequate home esp if they are happy. Why do you need to live in a huge palatial estate the wastes resources. If you have a comfortable bed, adequate clothese, an enjoyable job, and good friends then what more do you want? Is it really necessary to be greedy and selfish like we are in the US? The answer is no. I think the right wing idiots need a kick in the behind and not just a gentle one.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Who the hell are they to judge other countries system. First sort out their own problems then try to evaluate other countries. BTW who give a damn??? We all know American system is hypocrite and they are responsible of the current global recession. Millions of American are unemployed and still USA is making fun of excellent Swedish system. If American think treating every one equal is a nightmare then GOD bless America.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
that was funny! come on people!
if u are a big popstart atleast take out your own trash!! there is nothing wrong living like a european(NOT hahaha),we americans like bigger things,we are wasteful and we like it!! haha! taxes are high in sweden(on the average 30 to 33 percent) anyone making over 23,000krs a month pays 50% on every 1000krs over 23,000,but aleast u have free health care and schools oooh and don’t forget clean air and water hahaha! oooh about the kick in the behind(I think the right wing idiots need a kick in the behind and not just a gentle one.)i hope u have a BIG ASS BOOT because u will need one and oooh WE DO KICK BACK WITH A BIGGER BOOT!! ;) ;) so let’s GOOOOO GREEN!! SIKE!! i’m just JOKING!! NEVER THAT!!
April 28th, 2009 at 12:15 am
This is hilarious – you couldn’t get more praise – whats funny is that you guys don’t get that they are actually making fun of America and praising Sweden! I work for a Swedish company and this is fall off the floor funny.
Come on Irony! You guys usually are great with Sarcasm and irony – come on – you guys have like 50 different grunts!
Find your humour, they are thrashing America and wishing it was more like Sweden – its all good!
April 28th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Geeze…IRONY people, look it up.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:35 am
lol im not quite sure which is funnier – the clips or the responses from the people who dont understand the angle Jon was taking.. either way hillarious!!
April 28th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Brad, you mean Sarcasm. You look it up.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Amusing clips :)
Thou, actually tigger007, if you look at income tax, there are two of them, taking roughly 60 / 130 out of what you are making. And if you’re really lucky, it might go to 108 / 130; and then we have the nice 25 % on consumption and some more on other stuff.
I guess it’s time to move. :)
April 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
That was actually sarcasm. The Daily Show was making fun of the American government. The conservatives in particular. Bill O’Reilly is the devil.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
John Keels is not an american.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Just brilliant!….anyone taking this seriously has had a personality bypass!…Great comedy! and just takes the piss out of all that wrong with the US!
April 28th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
a tax taking 130% of what you are making? really? So by working you owe the governments money? I’ve lived in Sweden for the past 20 years and I’m fairly sure that no one there would accept that. Bloody Hell, not even Stalin taxed 130%
April 29th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Richard, as others have stated the show is completely based on sarcasm. The majority of Americans do not despise the Swedish system. John Stewart was simply making fun of the right wing fanatics that use that as a scare tactic. Personally I prefer a low tax system. I believe there should be services to help people if they loose their jobs or get injured, etc. The constant democratic leadership in virtually every big US city has caused the same problem of creating ghettos as the Swedish system has caused in its immigrant community. They have done this by providing lifetime government benefits. Also, treating everyone “fairly” is not built into the Swedish or American systems. Both have tiered tax rates. 5% of the US population pays something like 68% of the taxes. I am not even close to being in the top 5% but it is inherently not fair for them paying a higher percentage of their income to fund social services they will never use, in effect penalizing their success. Paying this higher percentage of their income does not get them an extra vote so how is it “fair”. A flat tax is the only fair system.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Steve,
The top 5% money earners in the US are the largest source of tax revenue, but their percentage paid is significantly less than the middle class. Tax shelters that are only available to the very rich make this possible. If someone makes a million dollars and pays 10% federal tax that is 100K. That is a lot more tax payment, monetarily, than a middle class taxpayer submits, but a middle class schlub pays more based on percentage, 15-18%.
The flat tax, which is indeed fair, will never occur because no Democrat or Republican will commit political suicide by attempting to advance this agenda. The flat tax only benefits the middle class. However, the money for campaigns come from that same 5% who pay 10 grand a plate at a fundraising dinner. Politicians know who butters their bread.
Regards,
Caleb
April 29th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
The rich may very well pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes, despite their higher official marginal tax rates.
High marginal tax rates allow politicians to extort campaign contributions and financial favors from the wealthy in return for special tax breaks and incentives.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Caleb, alas here we are. We pay professionals (most people anyway) do file their taxes because they are so complicated. You are 100% correct when you say this is not going to change anytime soon.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Steve, percent goes to 100%..no such thing as 130%
April 30th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I’d like to see Sweden try to maintain itself on a diet of several million illegal immigrants, with more flooding in daily, and a permanently welfare-addicted underclass.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
funny..as sweden pretty copies everything in its modern culture from the states….whats the matter …cant you come up with your own comedy shows?
April 30th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
funny..as sweden pretty copies everything in its modern culture from the states….whats the matter …cant you come up with your own comedy shows?
May 1st, 2009 at 1:12 am
@caleb:
You’re not exactly correct: You are ignoring the real tax rates, and also ignoring the state taxes whic are sometimes higher than federal. Some states even make you pay tax on everything you owe every year. And where does this money go? Well, to support the whole ridiculous system. In Milwaukee, if you retire with 30 years working for the local government, you can get a lump sum of up to $875,000 PLUS 90% of your pay in your highest year. (story on jsonline.com about an accountant for the police department getting this) and health benefits for life! Who is going to pay for this? HOMEOWNERS in Milwaukee. And they wonder why all the jobs and people have moved to Illinois…
@PsychoDad, you are correct, its already hurting them.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:17 am
@PsychoDad – you do realise that Sweden has more “luxurious” state welfare benefits yet a incredibly low rate of unemployment right? It’s not state welfare that causes unemployment it’s a combination of high-stress, pretty much 365 day a year menial jobs that do nothing to expand the skill set of it’s workers and the turbulence of placing so much trust in a system that is all about the short term.
Why are the same jobs in Sweden happily filled and the satisfaction of those workers not as bottemless as the UK?
The UK sucks tbh; it’s a sinking ship run by Chairmen, CEO’s and those with corporate interests. That’s the root of the problem – capitalism, not the saviour.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:09 am
The show’s ironic message gets lost in an attempt at humour that makes me ill at heart – laughs are extracted at the expense of others, and ideas that are over-dramatized to appeal to the lowest common denominator – the whole thing appears absurd and insulting from the outside.
If this approach is then cut, packaged and aired in the States as a ‘sharp and witty,’ model of ‘funny’, is it a wonder then why Americans (in general) have had a historically difficult go at conceiving of – and communiting with – the world outside their borders?
I think that poking fun at their own hesitation to ‘sort out their own household’ is a point well made – but the delivery could be improved with a little restraint – ie. lagom humour.
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:29 am
HAHA how funny!
I am an American and that was hilarious of how we made fun of our selves!
Go Sweden! we are all jealous and/or ignorant of you!
May 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Brilliant. Jon Stewart’s Daily Show is one of the most genuine political voices in the US & is far more influential than it’s ‘comedy show’ moniker implies. The US is bankrupt (in more ways than one) & yet we still have capitalists shrieking at the top of their lungs about the superiority of their system, all the while it falls around their ears.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
George w Bush
IRAK war
IRAN
Nixon
Watergate
Vietnam war
Arnold Schwarzenegger
US war in the pacific
American Legal System (Sueing)
US Healthcare
Ronald Reagan
Iran-Contra
Enronscandal
9/11 in NY
Black Friday
Columbine High School massacre
Flint, Michigan
Monica Lewinsky Affair
US Citizen not knowing anything at all outside US
IRS
INS
NSA
CIA
ATF
US Customs and Border Protection
US slavery
200 y Culture
Indian butchering
US environmental policy
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The thinking of all US people that “you are best” but in fact just being a funny hollywood movie…
May 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
How goody isn’it that a posted comment that is “negative” against US not will be published??
Is that Corruption or not?
LOL at US of Americas..
Kvack.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Come on people, you really need to lighten up. And those of you generalizing Americans really need to stop it…stop listening to the press and make up your own mind, I am Swedish, born and raised. However, I have lived in the US for the past 25 years and I can tell you first hand that most are the most genuine, hard working, and generous people you’d ever meet. Stop making generalizations about things you obviously know nothing.
May 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am
HAHAHAHAH I cant stop laughing.. Robyns place looked like shit!!! My house looks better… I live in Sweden and I am an american.. sweden is by FAR BETTER!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I am with you swedelam. I am American living in Sweden, and I am appalled at the generalizations here. There are good and bad points to every political system, none are perfect. I love America, I also love Sweden. It is a shame that there is such prejudice because if all the people could meet they would find out that they are not so different from each other.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:38 am
When 50 cent crashes & burns and loses all his junk, Robyn will still have her beautiful home.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I’d be interested to know how many of these people are making comments like this while sitting around in their Levi’s, drinking a Coke, listening to American music, downloading American film’s on an American operating system.
Yup, down with capitalism.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Actually it isn’t sarcasm,
And it isn’t irony,
It is called Satire. And it was very funny.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I find it strange when people tell me that I am “not a typical American.” Whenever someone makes this comment, I often ask whether he or she has ever been to the U.S. To begin with, the U.S. is a big country. It is ridiculous to assume that someone who grew up in Seattle would have the exact same experience, opinions, and values as someone who lives in Florida. Overgeneralizing to such an extent is just plain foolish.
May 24th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I live in Sweden, and I’m starting to think there’s some sort of covert social experimentation been run in this country. And I don’t think the average Swedes are happy bunch either, its too easy to say we have free this or free that, that isn’t the point at all, I believe the emphasis should be put in helping people to achieve their potential, I don’t think the current social system in Sweden does it very well, that is why I think many Swedes are leaving their beloved country. So stop asking for free bees, instead demand the right to unleash your potential.
May 31st, 2009 at 9:56 pm
[...] Jon Steward’s take on the Swedish model, please go here. It is hilarious and as always with Steward enlightening as well.  Of course, the country the [...]
June 8th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Don, Full of crap. All those young Swedes who leave to go to the ‘great’ states for all those unfettered choices come back to Sweden when they are ready to have kids. Guess the parental leave, the schools, the heavily subsidized day care, the long, paid holidays might have something to do with it, oh health care too. Plus, you have most, if not all of the same choices that one has in the states. Oh, I live here in Sweden too, and I don’t know what social experiment you talking about, but I can tell you that the free market experiment that the U.S. has been pushing on the rest of the world for as long as anyone can remember isn’t going according to plan. It isn’t a whole lot better than the states here, but just enough to make the choice clear.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
LYN oh LYN good job commenting! Maybe learn some maths, if for example a stock goes from $10 to $30 how many percent would that be? 200!? Oh no it can’t be true….percent stops att 100! HAHA!
June 16th, 2009 at 11:27 am
You have to love some people’s reaction to humor. Firstly, there is no such thing as a “perfect system”. Between USA and Sweden, they both have merits and drawbacks. From what I have seen there are people willing to work hard and get ahead in both countries and there are people who are lazy and live to draw off the “system”. There is no point in pointing fingers or looking down one’s nose. Everyone should be thankful they have the ability to voice an opinion. Nothing is “free” anywhere. Some things are just more costly than others from one place to another. A serious comparison between USA and Swedish government models is like comparing front tires to rear tires…. You want to challenge yourself, compare Sweden (or USA) to North Korea and get back to me.
…one last thing for “Donald US Duck” and that long list they posted:
Kitty Hawk 1903
Jonas Salk
the Grammaphone
Ben Franklin
the Model T
Air Conditioning
Steam Locomotive
Morse Code
the Submarine
the Telephone
the Transistor
the Razor
Locks
the Motorcycle
the Assembly Line
the light bulb
Plastic
the Atomic Bomb
Cotton Gin
Electron Microscope
the Pacemaker
the Airplane
the Helicopter
Vulcanized Rubber
the Desktop Computer
the Internet
Ralph Emerson
Henry Longfellow
John James Audubon
Samuel Clemens
Leonard Bernstein
Duke Ellington
Irving Berlin
George Gershwin
Neil Armstrong
NASA
APPLE
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June 16th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Sheer Genius! Superb writing.
Those over-sensitive American comments here are normal. Americans are known for their diffculty in accepting humor about themselves. Very sensitive, very emotional in their cognitive abilites.
As to the standard of living, they are deluded to think that the US is a succesful model. Not when there are so many on poor diets, without proper education, and whos healthcare costs are 50% higher per person than anywhere else in the World. To refuse the fact that their country needs major work, defies all logic. They simply keep creating problems for themselves and the world.
Some Americans love the veneer. Must be all those years of flag-waving programming.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Parrish
It helps to know one’s history, especiually if one is to start (mis)quoting. A lot of the innovations/inventions you list were actually designed by immigrants, mainly European immigrants. A lot of those behind your long list were not even Citizens of the US. Others used foreign research breakthroughs to platform their own innovations. Even the Wright brothers “Kitty Hawk” innovation was there by the grace of other’s research, which was then procured for them by the Smithsonian founder.
The internet had it’s predecessors, including the French “Minitel,” invented in a joint venture betwen France and the UK. The modern packet system called the Internet, was in fact developed under a joint intiative between the UK’s National Physics Laboratory, MIT and the Rand Corporation (incidentally, a Polish Scientist).
Locks were invented by the ancient Egyptions, Ancient Chinese and the Swiss. The Ipod, a Brit, the Elcetron Microscope, German. Helicopter? Everyone from the Chinese through Da Vinci through to the first French “Gyroplane.” Air Conditioning? The ancient Chinese, followed later by the British. The list goes on. I’m not sure where you un-learnt history, it must have been either in a US school or by Hollywood Osmosis.
Rather than lay claim to others work, the Swedish have invented and discovered an incredible amount of valuable break-through’s in history – dialysis machines, even your national favourite, soda drinks were invented in Sweden.
All this innovation throughout time, is as a direct result of one being able to look outwards, at all of the possibilities, rather than looking constantly inwards. The latter is the act of an insecure youngster, desperate at any cost to feel valued by the world. Time has proven that honesty, and the ability to self-reflect and accept constructive criticism without “going postal” can lead to all sorts of positive contributions.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Oh come on!! This is sarcasm, irony, satir or whatever you want to call it. It’s a joke!
June 26th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Sofia, yes the delivery is humorous, but the subject matter is spot on. Unlike many Americans, the Daily Show writers and commentators are not afraid to express their views on the massive shortcomings of their own country’s policies.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Come on you guys. This is sarcasm, as indicated before, John Stewart and Colbert Report are the 2 shows that really reflect the freedom of speach, they are a total “expose” in 3D on the myths and sicko things about america. They are spoofs, if you do not see it, it makes me question your educational system.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Ha it is just funny!!Especially if you have lived in both countries…
July 29th, 2009 at 1:42 am
For all the American bashers: At least we don’t have to take credit for IKEA.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
How can comedy like this end up as a country bashing stereotyping agianst eachother come on! this is funny take it with ease. i still cant stop laughing bout he calling him frodo baggins. not evrything needs to end up into a serious matter. this is humour chill out guys
October 26th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Ok, just the fact that a number of people, according to their comments, did not realize that this was a clever sarcastic joke against american free-market economics and discourse, is just sad….and as much as it is humorous it is political – it is not just for laughing, but for thinking and taking/propagating a certain position as well.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
This is the most fun video i have seen in a looooong time!
Can’t understand that people here are upset of a Joke…..
It is funnny !!!!!!!
I’m from Sweden and like our way even if it has some bad limits as all other systems. I love however how this show is more making fun of their own system then sweden. It is called Irony…. so to all the people that got upset i can only say….. Relax! take a massage…. or something …. this was humur in a time of only news about ressesion and crises! Don’t be so stiff!
July 9th, 2010 at 11:08 am
in Sweden u need license for Pepper spray
November 4th, 2010 at 7:32 am
As an American, can I just say…WE ABSOLUTELY WISH WE WERE SWEDEN!!!
Some of us loathe capitalism and would give anything for our government to recognize that there is a better way to live! This video was absolutely done ‘tongue in cheek’. We get the irony. We really do.