[Kenswing]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

Also, NATO was pretty happy to allow / WELCOME Sweden and Finland into their organization. One reason is that their GNPs are high enough to be able to PAY for excellent military equipment, NOT that the US is lacking in any way in military capability. Just saying that ALL, ALL indications are that the Scandinavian countries have top economies. True that they have a VAT system as does most of Europe, but somehow they make it work for THEM. I am NOT sure HOW they do it, but I know for a fact that they have a strong middle class (and we do NOT today) and they DO find a way to make their WEALTHY class feed back WEALTH INTO their country. Many US millionaires and Corporations find ways to DODGE paying their fair share of taxes - they even push their wealth overseas to avoid taxation. And I assume there is a different mentality in the Scandinavian states about whether their government is "friend or foe". In the US the Federal government is considered to be the FOE and as such, US citizens may have less of a problem than a Scandinavian citizen may have about CHEATING their government OUT of taxes.
......It may be as simple as that. After all, in most things, ATTITUDE is everything. I also notice that Scandinavian citizens are NOT very interested in immigrating to the US.
........Ca. may be one of the few US states with a true PROGRESSIVE tax system as intended by the founding fathers, who ran away from Kings. The wealthy in Ca. are always complaining that they pay too much taxes. They want the tax burden shifted to the middle class as has been done in many US states. The middle class in Ca actually pays less of the tax burden than in most other states with flat tax / sales tax systems or states which have succumbed to the wealthy push to get the state to flatten out their PROGRESSIVE systems.

When will you stop posting misinformation? Sweden and Finland are NOT part of NATO. And if Turkey has its way they never will be.