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Comment by legulere | Hacker News Reader

There's also lots of things wrong in Scandinavia. There's segregation between the "native" population and the immigrants/their descendants. Suspects for crime, including children are put into isolation by default. Strict drug laws, strict alcohol laws that lead to binge drinking instead of a normal enjoyment of beer/wine. A strong sense that they're the best in the world which they often actively carry outwards.

Still I really love it.

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The binge drinking I've seen in Sweden is a shadow of the binge drinking I've seen in the UK, which has more lenient laws. Though I dread going to conference in England because their normal end-of-the-day social drinking is my binge drinking, so I'm perhaps not one to say.

I believe that it's common in many if not most countries for its citizens to have a strong sense that they're the best in the world. Forbes has an article from 8 year ago titled "World's Most And Least Patriotic Countries" describing a NORC/U. Chicago study. NORC lists Sweden as one of the least patriotic countries.

Given how much I knew Swedes love their country, and love flying their flag, either that study has methodological errors, or effectively all the citizens of a nation have a strong sense that their nation is the best in the world.

This reminds me of my time in Stockholm. I was there for a few months and saw quite a few homeless people. I don't remember a single one of them being a white "native" Swede. They all appeared to be immigrants. Swedes might brag about their good social welfare (and it's great if you can get it) but it doesn't seem to be applied evenly.

God how I hate the reputation these people give us. They are Roma people from Romania. We are drowning in them in Norway as well. We pay Romania a shitload to help them, but all the money disappears in corruption so Roma people actually find life easier begging for scraps in Scandinavia than living in the country where they have citizenship and their government is supposed to take care of them with Scandinavian money.

We can't just shelling out money and benefits to people who have no legal status in our countries. Then millions would pour in.

You sound like the Donald talking about Mexicans!

So sorry for your reputation. /s

Those are migrants, not immigrants. They are allowed to stay for 3 months without a job (but there is no checks on how long they stay) and they do get a lot of free healthcare and other "benefits" they don't have in their originating countries. Scandinavia cannot help everyone. There is rules and an order in who to help first, and unfortunately for the migrants they are not at the top.

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