All employees, in both the private and public sector should have 2 times 1 hour compulsory physical exercise of some kind every week, this would help lower sick leave, and make the personnel generally more healthy which means they would be more productive.
Jobs
Lowering the standard workday to 6 or 7 hours(do not apply to workplaces with labour shortage, like for example qualified doctors in hospitals) and of course lowering salary with an equivalent amount would lead to more jobs which would lead to better national economy. Less work time also means you can spend more time with family and friends which should generally improve mental health.
It would mean a drastic increase in people who need a second job. We do not want to become like the USA.
People don't really need all the luxury they have today and there would of course have to be a legal minimum wage that would be possible to live on.
The current law protecting employees is outdated and hinder the younger generations from finding jobs even though they may be more qualified.
Yes, but there is a problem here. I am all for more flexible rules on this market, as long as the employer can show with a certain amount of credibility that it is not done to force lower salaries.
Agreed.
Taxes
Taxes are too low today, however the taxes that the state gets are not used effectively enough. Therefore a large investigation of how tax money is spent must be done before taxes may be raised.
... I can name one reason taxes are wasted. Investigations. While not unneeded, they could be more streamlined.
I agree on all accounts, except that I also think taxes would still be too low.
Sexuality and Religion
Everyone should have the right to believe whatever they want without being discriminated against, however if your belief make you do things to hurt others then you should be ready to take the consequences, for example prison.
well, duh.
Nobody should be discriminated against because of their sexuality. However all sexual acts have to be between consenting partners with a full mental understanding of what they are doing. A child cannot understand the concept of sex and an animal cannot give consent.
uhuh.
Laws and Punishment
Today our laws are not hard enough. We need stricter laws, especially for crimes that directly violates a human being i.e. rape, battering, etc. Crimes directed at children should have harder punishments than crimes against adults. Criminals are not healthy mentally, they should of course be punished, but more studies and more resources should be made on how to treat them so that they may leave prison in a better mental state. Community service is something that would be beneficial to the society for those who commit lesser crimes, i.e. speeding, shoplifting.
Harsher laws does not necessarily mean less crime... Nor am I a proponent of the 'punishment' mentality.
that is why I'm saying we need to focus more on rehabilitation.
Children under the age of 15 who has committed a crime should not get away with it without punishment, however the punishments need to be different and not as harsh. For example having to attend behavioural classes and classes in ethics. The parents to a child under the age of 15 who commits a crime should be fined.
Give the parents a stiff fine. 
EU and Globalism
The power is too centralised, and the EU has too many different people for this to work well, what works in Finland might not work in Poland or Spain. EU needs to first of all give back some of the regulatory power to the individual states. Then the EU need to make it easier for states to recede from the Union. Sweden needs to work much harder towards this goal.
Eh. No. Membership is an advantage, isolationist policies have never worked particularly well.
Working together over borders is not a bad thing, however all countries need to have an individual option to say no to suggestions that will hurt their people, ideology, or economy in very negative ways.
I have a certain amount of disrespect for a few EU policies, but would think those issues could be solved by a more demanding policy from the member states... but if one just rolls over when baroso tells you so...
It seems like Sweden gets a lot of new laws nobody here would have consider since we joined the EU. And that private citizens or companies can go to the EU court is ridiculous.
Health Care
Teeth and eyesight are not cosmetic things as they are now considered by the Swedish state. Both should be covered by the public health care as they are necessary for work and a worthy life.
Perhaps.
I'm not saying eye surgery should be covered by the state. However the actual correcting lenses in glasses. Then if you want anything over that that's up to you. Teeth I however think should be covered by the "high cost insurance"(or however you translate that)
Schools/ Education
Schools are something that very badly needs to be remodelled. The most important thing schools need are more personnel. 30 people per class is unacceptable, and more focus need to be laid on those who have trouble in school, with for example the learning process, bullying, ditching school, etc. Grades are a good measurement on how well a student is doing, however starting with grades too early is neither effective nor healthy. Sixth- Seventh grade is a good time to start with grades, then the children may understand the significance of them.
Grades are a blunt instrument, and from a learning perspective, completely useless. This is fact from most research of the topic. What needs to be done is working with formative assessment from young ages, and actively discourage the giving of grades or numerical scores on exams. Commenting and suggesting improvement is the way to go.
They are blunt and needs to be remodelled to add comments on how the student can improve themselves.
There should be no private schools. Private schools add to segregation and take funds from private schools. Private schools are also much too often used to spread ideology and messages a school has no reason spreading. A school is an institution for learning, teaching children what to believe is up to the parents. Religion, however is an important subject to teach to make the children understand other cultures.
Private schools are okay, IMO, but they should follow similar rules as in a large part of europe in that they need to be non-profit organisations if they want to share in the school monies. However, schools should be monitored so they fulfil the standards set up in the governing documents.
I can live with that.
School start need to be more individually adapted to each child, one child might be ready for school at age 7, one at 8, or at 6. Sexual education is an important subject to limit the spreading of diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
Yes, but sex ed can wait until they are at least 10
Agreed, I was thinking 12.
Schools also need classes on tolerance and learning about and accepting people of all colours, religion and sexual preferences.
Actually, that is a requirement in the governing documents in swedish schools that such things should be learned.
Never heard of it. Sounds good.
There is too much "fluff" in schools these days. Teachers need to be stricter and have more tools to punish children(Not physically or mentally), but for example sending them home if they are a disturbance, or to detention, or make them help with cleaning the school or school yard.
Pupils get detention all the time? at least in schools I have been. It is typically for late arrivals, though. But punishment isn't the way to go. Get better teachers.
Agree on the better teachers thing. They used to have detention when I was in school, but in class 7 to 9 they gave it up because nobody showed up at detention.
Learning to work in group is an important part of school. However all students cannot learn as well as others in groups, today almost every class in Swedish schools have only group exercises, and no individual work, this need to be balanced better
Go tell a surgeon how to operate.
What I wrote above is again examples on why schools need more teachers/personnel, to see the individual student and not just go to class and see just a mass without individuality.
Really, all changes done since 94 has been towards individuality. I must confess that I am convinced that most students can be classified in a small number of categories - purely individual education cannot be achieved without attaching brain monitors on the students... Smaller classes is not a bad thing, of course, but it is not a universal solution.
In higher education more resources needs to be applied to education on distance and to help those who must work for some reason, help parents who want to study, and so on. The Internet is a tool that is not used enough in higher education and teachers need to learn how to use it more effectively.
Fuck that. Distance education is awful. There are reasons for on site education, and much of it is based on the fact that human interaction is a very powerful tool in the learning process. So until you can plug in your brain to the computer, you will miss an important aspect of your education if you do it over the internets.
The Right to Vote/ Legal Age/ Driving Age
The human brain takes a long time to fully develop, an 18 year old is not always fully capable of making an informed decision alone. Therefore the legal age, driving age and voting age should all be raised to age 20. There are of course individuals who develop faster, however the majority do not.
No. There are other reasons of course, but the thing is, you cannot start to take away individual liberties after having had them granted... to do so would alienate the people. Also, most 18 year olds aren't all that bad.
That is a problem, but it happens all the time.
Information Technology
Today access to the Internet should be a right, all should be able to at least have a computer that can view web pages and Internet access. 10-15 years ago the most important news sources where TV and newspapers today it is the Internet. Therefore social security needs to cover this.
there are some things which can only be accessed online. However... that could easily be managed by an online computer in a library - I am a bit hesitant about making it my problem to allow people to play WoW...
I'm not saying someone should have good enough connection to the Internet to play online games. And if libraries everywhere had enough computers and more easy access to them I would agree with you. There are as you say a lot of things you can only access online, and I was mostly thinking of arbetsförmedlingen's databases.
Environment
Today there are no viable alternatives to nuclear energy for most industrialised countries. All kinds of functional energy sources has a too large negative effect on nature, global or local. Nuclear energy needs too become safer and more effective, which today is possible however in Sweden this is not done. We do however have to keep searching for viable alternatives. If we don't stop using oil and coal we will soon need to find a new planet, and those who compare humans with locusts, or viruses will be proven right.
need to find a new planet? You really bought into the horror propaganda that much? While I agree that it would probably be practical and ethically correct not to drown millions of people in bangladesh, and that alternative sources of energy should be developed, finding new planets will not be a requirement.
I'm not saying we will all die in a year, but if we continue as we are things are going to become much worse. Maybe not in 10 or 20 years, but if time goes on.
We also need to make more of an effort to phase out vehicles run on petrol. More should be made to encourage people to bicycle and use public transportation.
Of course. However, for that to work, the public transportation needs to be halfway decent first. While living in a bigger city, it is not really a problem, but just go a hundred kilometers outside, and it could be perfectly useless.
Here it works well with public transportation, however it could be a lot better.
I'm bored, and being yelled at online always make me less bored. I don't think I've said anything about the US in this post, I'll try and do more mockery of the US as soon as possible, forgive me for not having any.
No. You are not forgiven.
Darned.
Formerly known as Jojjo.
Some changes Sweden really need.
- 28/09/2009 01:38:41 PM
601 Views
Wow, so much to disagree with, I think my brain over-loaded
- 28/09/2009 01:54:16 PM
406 Views
So... brains aren't fully developed until 20, but 16 year olds should be tried as adults?
- 28/09/2009 07:30:49 PM
386 Views
No, as juveniles?
- 28/09/2009 08:42:42 PM
346 Views
Sweden's driving age is 18?
- 28/09/2009 09:27:16 PM
363 Views
Re: Sweden's driving age is 18?
- 29/09/2009 10:30:50 AM
365 Views
Interesting
- 29/09/2009 02:08:42 AM
346 Views
Re: Interesting
- 29/09/2009 07:04:27 AM
479 Views
Re: Interesting
- 29/09/2009 10:49:35 AM
355 Views
I doubt it
- 29/09/2009 12:46:45 PM
388 Views
Re: Interesting
- 29/09/2009 11:43:49 AM
445 Views