{"id":465,"date":"2005-03-15T11:56:19","date_gmt":"2005-03-15T18:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=465"},"modified":"2005-03-15T11:56:19","modified_gmt":"2005-03-15T18:56:19","slug":"infrequently-asked-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2005\/03\/infrequently-asked-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Infrequently asked questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Sweden’s Social Democrats floating a trial balloon regarding the possibility of running on a tax-even-more-and-spend platform for the next general elections, Stockholm Metro<\/a> [PDF] today published the results of an opinion poll they commissioned. As usual, the questions couldn’t be formulated any worse:<\/p>\n

57% of 970 respondents answered Yes to the question“Kan du t\u00e4nka dig att betala mer i skatt om det inneb\u00e4r en f\u00f6rstarkning av skola, v\u00e5rd och omsorg?”<\/span>, “Would you be willing to pay more in taxes if it meant strengthening schools, health care and social care?”<\/p>\n

60% of respondents answered Yes to the question“B\u00f6r svenska fackf\u00f6reningar genom blockader hindra utl\u00e4ndska f\u00f6retag fr\u00e5n att utf\u00f6ra arbeten i Sverige om de inte skriver p\u00e5 svenska avtal?”<\/span>, “Should Swedish unions, through blockades, prevent foreign firms from performing work in Sweden if they do not subscribe to Swedish collective bargaining?”<\/p>\n

Questions I really wish they had asked:<\/p>\n

1) Would you be willing to pay more in taxes if it meant a strengthening of schools, health care and social care?<\/p>\n

Ja [X]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

2) Then you would definitely be willing to pay less<\/em> in taxes if it meant a strengthening of schools, health care and social care?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X]<\/p>\n

3) No, it’s not a trick question. Consider this: If somebody could make a better TV more cheaply, would you buy it instead of what’s available now?<\/p>\n

Ja [X]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

4) Would you be willing to buy a better, cheaper television if it were made abroad?<\/p>\n

Ja [X]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

5) Would you be willing to pay more for a TV made in Sweden if you could buy the identical TV made abroad for less?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

6) It doesn’t matter to you where this TV comes from?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

6a) You’re sure?<\/p>\n

Ja [X]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

7) So you don’t think you should be forced<\/em> to buy more expensive Swedish TVs if you can get the same quality TV more cheaply from abroad? (Sorry to be repetitive, I just want to be clear)<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

8) Not through tariffs, import quotas, punitive duties, or blockades?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

9) You realize that this means Swedish TV factory workers might have to find more productive work elsewhere?<\/p>\n

Ja [X]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

10) Is the labor that a factory worker puts into making a TV special? I mean, is it any more or less precious than the labor put into catching fish, mining copper, writing an article, programming code, or building a house?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

11) So if Swedish TV manufacturers shouldn’t get any special protection from foreign competition, then fishermen, miners, journalists, programmers and builders shouldn’t either?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

12) So you don’t think you should be forced<\/em> to buy a more expensive house to help Swedish builders avoid adapting to global norms of competition, if you can get the same quality house more cheaply from abroad?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

13) Should a Swedish union, through a blockade, force you to buy a more expensive house than the one you can buy made by foreign labour?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n

13) Should Swedish unions, through blockades, prevent foreign firms from performing work in Sweden if they do not subscribe to Swedish collective bargaining?<\/p>\n

Ja [X<\/span>]  Nej [X<\/span>]  Vet ej [X<\/span>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Sweden’s Social Democrats floating a trial balloon regarding the possibility of running on a tax-even-more-and-spend platform for the next general elections, Stockholm Metro [PDF] today published the results of an opinion poll they commissioned. As usual, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-economics","category-sweden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7eNhC-7v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}