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Comment by yeahitslikethat | Hacker News Reader

Uh. That's not what the Scandinavians I know say.

The 2–3 Scandinavian millionaires I know say things like “I’m glad the government paid for my schooling up through college and I didn’t start my career buried in debt.” Or “Wow I’m glad we have a working heathcare system. The USA sounds like a dystopian nightmare.” Also “I wish our winter had a bit more sunshine.”

The argument is the US system is more extreme. In the US those 2-3 Scandinavian millionaires would be worth 4 times what they are worth there. But then again some of your friends living middle class there would be poor and housing insecure.

That isn't the argument, the argument is that if you adjusted for the non-linear effects of growing the population then the US has a better or equal system.

The US has a lot of warts, so that may not be true at the end of the day - but it is a pretty reasonable argument. The population of Scandanavia is less than 10% of the population of the US and is part of a larger European region. Comparing the Scandinavian system to the US system is like running US Federal policy by assuming all 300 million Americans live and work in the nice half of California rather than the geographically and economically diverse reality.

A high tech industry hub can only employ so many people. Hence that non-linearity of effects. And the politics of scaling up population aren't at all smooth (small is better for politics).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP...

You know 2-3 millionaires, that’s cute. Half the senior engineers in my unremarkable US-based startup are millionaires.

Yes, as an American I haven’t had extended conversations about tax rates or comparative government policy with all that many wealthy Scandinavians. I am just offering a small anecdote which contradicts the previous small anecdote.

I have also discussed these topics with plenty of American millionaires. Most of those are also disgusted at the US healthcare system and skyrocketing college tuition. YMMV. (How do your coworkers feel about the cost of putting their kids through college or covering aging parents’ medical bills?)

So happens that many (more than 2-3) of the millionare engineers I mentioned never went to college.

Why is it the parents’ responsibility to put their kids through college? If your parents paid for your college, you do not have the right to refer to yourself as self made, millionaire or otherwise.

My parents lived in Canada, the one that is no longer here died from cancer after waiting 5 months for an operating room to open up. They were only stage 2 when they received the diagnosis. I would have broken the bank to get them care in the states if I was working then.

Funny how things are so free to the point that they become worthless when you actually need them.

They will need those millions to cover for college tuition, medical bills and so on, presumably.

Lol this is such bullshit. I spent 4 years in Sweden, people there complain even more than Americans.

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