92% of Americans want to live in Sweden.

[The Floridian Coast]

I want to live in Sweden too. The birthplace of the pirate party, the origin country of perhaps the best metal band ever (In Flames), and Scandinavian girls are by far the most attractive in the world (second place to central European girls). Forget the redistribution of wealth, there's enough incentive already. Of course, my first winter there were probably freeze my blood and cyronically suspend me.

[Lessnt]

Americans are closet socialists, lol.

Americans just like Ikea
and to Americans (and most people) Ikea = Sweden

Its so cheap....And is of such low quality....but it looks ok....and so cheap....cheap......so easy to just hope....and to modify the item so its workable.
I got a dresser from IKEA...started falling apart.....it simply was not made well....(but since I had to construct it IKEA can say it is my fault)
SO I modify it with duct tape and nails....still falls apart.....at least it is useable to some extent even while losing functionality and looks seemingly broken.

[Ashmoria]

I saw this covered on PBS Newshour yesterday. This episode.

Now I'll link to the online version of the quiz, against from PBS's website. Before you look at this, bear in mind that the online version is not necessarily "cold canvassed" ... a lot of the respondents would already know the answer from watching the show or indeed reading the page it is on. Here is the quiz that PBS gave to people on the street.

Now, PBS's "research" on the street was completely unscientific. But on their site they link to the study by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely, which is pretty damn scientific.

Here's a link to the pdf from Harvard Business School's site.

92% of Americans, when choosing between the actual wealth distribution of the United States and that of Sweden (without knowing which is which) actually prefer Sweden.

As far as I can tell, the study does not say what proportion of people actually think they're living in Sweden (wealth-distribution wise).

i would LOVE to live in sweden. if they spoke english and moved the country to the caribbean.

[Keronians]

Old news.

Besides, a better question is:

"Who DOESN'T want to live in Sweden?"

[Vecherd]

Old news.

Besides, a better question is:

"Who DOESN'T want to live in Sweden?"

*Raises hand*

[Lessnt]

Old news.

Besides, a better question is:

"Who DOESN'T want to live in Sweden?"

im part of the 8%
I do not like how america is...but.....I am far too attached to ever leave.

[Avenio]

I don't think they want Sweden's alcoholism or suicide rate, which is probably a result of the fact that there are fewer challenges in life because of everything being taken care of for you.

Curiously, that's generally the opposite result to what's observed. Look at the suicide rates in OECD countries, for example; the two highest countries on the list, being Japan and South Korea, are famous for having some of the most hyper-competitive educational systems in the developed world, with youth suicide rates being much, much higher comparative to other countries. What's more so, given your theory of 'the more comprehensive the welfare state, the higher the suicide/alcoholism rate', we should expect to see a strong correlation between the two; sadly, no such link is directly observed. The top ten of that list has two former Soviet-bloc nations, Switzerland, Finland, France and Belgium; the first two can be much more readily explained by poverty and a lack of opportunity, while the final four, while all European welfare states, are fairly middle-of-the-road as Europe goes. What's truly interesting is that Estonia appears on the list fairly early on, in the number nine spot; Estonia has previously been touted by an-caps on this forum as a paragon of market-based economics, and still remains high up on the list. Finally, if your theory were true, we would see a clustering of the Scandinavian states near or at the top, as they are consistently near the top of the heap in regards to overall strength of their welfare state; we don't see any such thing, as, in fact, the Nordic states are strewn right across the chart. As an addendum, I haven't been able to find any data on alcoholism by country, but even if we go by overall alcohol consumption by country, there's still no direct correlation.

[Sibirsky]

Old news.

Besides, a better question is:

"Who DOESN'T want to live in Sweden?"

*Raises hand*

*also raises hand*

[AiliailiA]

I went to sleep an hour ago, all drunk and confuzzled, but I forgot to put down the wireless keyboard so I'm typing this in my sleep:

That post by Avenio absolutely rocked. I wish I had the muscles to punch like that.

On the other hand, I have a glass jaw so I really shouldn't punch like that.

Drunken OP checking in and checking out, carry on folks ...

[Risottia]

Americans just like Ikea
and to Americans (and most people) Ikea = Sweden

Its so cheap....And is of such low quality....but it looks ok....and so cheap....cheap......so easy to just hope....and to modify the item so its workable.
I got a dresser from IKEA...started falling apart.....it simply was not made well....(but since I had to construct it IKEA can say it is my fault)
SO I modify it with duct tape and nails....still falls apart.....at least it is useable to some extent even while losing functionality and looks seemingly broken.

I don't understand this myth about IKEA goods being poor quality. Expecially when such complaints come from people who try to fix furniture with tape and nails instead of using screws.

[Risottia]

Old news.

Besides, a better question is:

"Who DOESN'T want to live in Sweden?"

*Raises hand*

You're a Scandinavian. We know you Vikings just want to come south to steal our wimminz, our wine and our sunshine.

[New England and The Maritimes]

Its so cheap....And is of such low quality....but it looks ok....and so cheap....cheap......so easy to just hope....and to modify the item so its workable.
I got a dresser from IKEA...started falling apart.....it simply was not made well....(but since I had to construct it IKEA can say it is my fault)
SO I modify it with duct tape and nails....still falls apart.....at least it is useable to some extent even while losing functionality and looks seemingly broken.

I don't understand this myth about IKEA goods being poor quality. Expecially when such complaints come from people who try to fix furniture with tape and nails instead of using screws.

I've made furniture for a living(did pretty well, since our desks sold for $800 and our kitchens for thousands,) and I haven't found much wrong with IKEA. It's not high quality, obviously, since it's factory made, but it's not trash by any means.

[Romalae]

I'm not surprised. As an American, I would love to live in Sweden any day. Or any of the Scandinavian countries, for that matter.

[Lessnt]

Its so cheap....And is of such low quality....but it looks ok....and so cheap....cheap......so easy to just hope....and to modify the item so its workable.
I got a dresser from IKEA...started falling apart.....it simply was not made well....(but since I had to construct it IKEA can say it is my fault)
SO I modify it with duct tape and nails....still falls apart.....at least it is useable to some extent even while losing functionality and looks seemingly broken.

I don't understand this myth about IKEA goods being poor quality. Expecially when such complaints come from people who try to fix furniture with tape and nails instead of using screws.

It is what I had laying around.
Which doesnt change the fact that it was built exactly as stated in instructions and the damn thing worked fine for a short time.Till wear and tear made it fall apart.
Either way screws would have no helped the parts that were falling off.(literally falling without any good reason)
But I suppose your free to buy yourself some furniture and take the risk.

[RobCo Industries]

If all these Americans went to Sweden they'd sink it faster then a 1000lb guy in a small boat.

I doubt they interviewed every American, now did they? The correct answer is "out of the group of people we interviewed and studied 92% of them would rather go to Sweden".

[Vecherd]

*Raises hand*

You're a Scandinavian. We know you Vikings just want to come south to steal our wimminz, our wine and our sunshine.

Its true you know? Although I like Australian and Israeli wine the best. I do not want to live in Sweden though, it is like a cheap and dirty Norway, but now you can buy beer at fuel stations in Sweden now and that is always a plus.

[Sibirsky]

*Raises hand*

You're a Scandinavian. We know you Vikings just want to come south to steal our wimminz, our wine and our sunshine.

I don't care about your sunshine, but I do admit to being a fan of Italian women, wine, cars, and a bunch of other things. Also Inter. And by cars, I did not mean Fiat. More along the lines of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

I guess the sunshine is nice too.

[Idaho Conservatives]

A poll inaccurately reflects reality? This one's news to me!

[Enatai]

I agree with this as a political analysis.

But I think the study shows that not only do most people have an unrealistic view of how wealth should be distributed, but that view is based on a very faulty understanding of how it actually is distributed. They think it is more even than it really is ... and consequently, they think that getting to a more even distribution (which they say they would prefer) either isn't a high priority, or doesn't justify nasty things like taxing the rich more heavily.

Or more likely, maybe they're just shit stupid and don't understand that taxes don't just go to sky fairies that make all the money disappear.

This. In fact, all of these! Taxes get a really shitty reputation, but the truth is that taxes are what keep things running smoothly. For all our bitching about taxes and complaining about how damn high they are, in my personal experience (I am SURE there are exceptions to this because I've seen them, but these are general rules), we tend to only complain about how wasted our tax dollars are when there's something wrong. Pretty much never have I seen someone pay their taxes and then go "Hey, wow, isn't that great? I only have to pay the government a little bit and look at all this great stuff I get pack from it! Boy does it feel good to give back to my community!" I'm not saying we should be saying that, because that statement is fairly one-sided and clearly more than a little naive, but in general, I don't see the government taxing people unless they think there's a good reason for it. Do I think taxes are high? Well not really, although I just started working, so my opinion probably doesn't really count when it comes to that. But forgive me for trusting that the government might actually (gasp!) use our taxes productively once in a while.

[Malgrave]

Sweden is a pretty awesome country.

[AiliailiA]

A poll inaccurately reflects reality? This one's news to me!

Poll, you say?

Hell yes, let's have a poll. Going to edit OP now!

[Keronians]

You're a Scandinavian. We know you Vikings just want to come south to steal our wimminz, our wine and our sunshine.

I don't care about your sunshine, but I do admit to being a fan of Italian women, wine, cars, and a bunch of other things. Also Inter. And by cars, I did not mean Fiat. More along the lines of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

I guess the sunshine is nice too.

Pfft.

*rolls out Spanish beaches*

The nude section's over there -->

[X_oO-0-X-0-Oo_x]

You're a Scandinavian. We know you Vikings just want to come south to steal our wimminz, our wine and our sunshine.

Didn't they do that to sicily back in the day?

[The Anti-Cosmic Gods]

Luckily I don't base where I want to live off of wealth distribution. Retarded poll is retarded.

[Sibirsky]

I don't care about your sunshine, but I do admit to being a fan of Italian women, wine, cars, and a bunch of other things. Also Inter. And by cars, I did not mean Fiat. More along the lines of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

I guess the sunshine is nice too.

Pfft.

*rolls out Spanish beaches*

The nude section's over there -->

Is that near Barcelona? Because I'll take Barca over Inter.