Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Actually, there are some interesting facts about all of Scandanavia. A survey done last year, primarily among Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, showed that they were consistently happy with their way of life and their governments. A surprising section of the survey was a series of questions regarding where else in the world they would like to live and why. And where in the world they absolutely would not want to live.

On that last set of questions, the Scandanavians were almost unanimous in their opinion that they definitely would not want to live in the U.S. They felt that they enjoyed a better standard of living, better healthcare, better education, a more stable economy and were generally happier with their lives than any Americans that they knew. They had a uniformly high regard for the performance of their elected government. A high percentage of the survey respondents had visited the U.S. and had formed their opinions first-hand.

It was an eye-opener for those of us who think we have it pretty good here in the old homeland. Yes, the Swedes pay higher taxes than we do. But they believe they're getting their moneys worth, seemingly borne out by many of the country comparison statistics. It seems to beg the question of how satisfied we are with our elected officials and the governance they provide?